July 29, 2025
Government Accountability Project Clients Receive Pillar Awards
WASHINGTON—Today, Government Accountability Project clients Dr. Robert Kroutil and Erez Reuveni were awarded Pillar Awards from the 2025 Whistleblower Summit & Film Festival. The Pillar is awarded to politicians, community activists, and journalists (including documentary filmmakers) who are “notable civil and human rights champions.”
Dr. Robert Kroutil, a former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) contractor, came to Government Accountability Project in the wake of the 2023 Norfolk Southern trail derailment in East Palestine, OH. After EPA attempted to assess chemical releases using the ASPECT (Airborne Spectral Photometric Environmental Collection Technology) airplane, for which Dr. Kroutil invented the software, Dr. Kroutil called out EPA ASPECT managers for failing to collect timely or complete data in East Palestine. He disclosed that EPA did not fly the plane until five days after the derailment, missing the massive chemical plumes and turning off sensors over the town’s creeks. EPA also falsified records to cover up this mission breakdown. Over two years later, his reports have opened an investigation into EPA’s negligence as the town of East Palestine continues to suffer.
Erez Reuveni, former Acting Deputy Director of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Immigration Litigation (OIL), became a Government Accountability Project client this year after serving nearly 15 years as a...
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