J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo
A federal watchdog agency this week formally closed out what it called “totally unsubstantiated” whistleblower allegations of mismanagement under the Trump administration’s Bureau of Indian Affairs.
In a letter sent Tuesday to the White House, the Office of Special Counsel said investigators found no evidence to support the whistleblower complaints initially filed in December 2019 targeting BIA’s Office of Justice Services.
The first complaint by a solo whistleblower, which was followed by a similar complaint made by multiple individuals, alleged a BIA official had improperly ordered the reassignment of 25 Office of Justice Services employees in an effort to force them out of the agency.
Another complaint was that the official, whose name is redacted in the report, had moved seven high-level management positions to Muskogee, Okla., without operational justification, to be closer to a personal residence.
Investigators, first with Interior’s Office of Inspector General and then with the Office of Special Counsel, came up dry.
“The investigation examined 52 reassignments,” Special Counsel Henry Kerner wrote, and investigators “determined that ‘all 52 were based on legitimate justifications and were made to improve the efficiency of the federal service.“
Kerner added that “there was no evidence of improper motive or that the justifications cited in the directed reassignments were untruthful.”
Investigators further concluded that the Muskogee moves...
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