“At the Department of Justice (DOJ), nearly one in four employees fear reprisal for reporting suspected violations of law, rule, or regulation,” writes Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) at the outset of a letter written to Attorney General Merrick Garland. “Appallingly, this rate represents the highest of any federal agency separately reported in the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) for 20222.”
Grassley’s letter, sent in early April 2023, outlines a culture of whistleblower retaliation at the DOJ and poses several questions to Garland aimed to help remedy the situation. Grassley, sometimes referred to as “the patron saint of whistleblowers,” has been the leading champion of whistleblower causes within Congress for decades.
“DOJ’s culture of retaliation and failure to inform contractors of whistleblower protections as required by law only serves to chill whistleblowers from disclosing wrongdoing and misconduct and violates the law,” writes Grassley. “Federal law prohibits agencies from retaliating against employees because they disclose information they believed demonstrated a violation of law, rule, or regulation; gross mismanagement; gross waste of funds; abuse of authority or substantial and specific danger to public health and safety.”
Grassley ends his letter by posing a number of questions and requests for Garland:
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