As hurricane season continues, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is focused on what really matters most: illegally interrogating federal employees to hunt down anyone who’s criticized the Trump administration’s actions.
In August, 192 FEMA employees signed an open letter addressing the deep cuts to the agency’s budget, the drastic reduction in disaster personnel, and the Trump administration’s censorship of climate science. Of those signatories, 154 remained anonymous because, honestly, wouldn’t you?
Those who publicly signed were immediately placed on leave, which is a violation of the Whistleblower Protection Act, and it’s not even close. The WPA protects federal employees who disclose information about law violations, abuses of authority, waste of funds, and threats to public health and safety. The government can’t legally take any adverse personnel actions, including suspension—but it did anyway.
Now, it’s compounding its violations by trying to track down the anonymous signers.
FEMA’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which investigates employee misconduct, has been forcing staffers to disclose the names of anyone who signed the letter anonymously or distributed it. Employees were not allowed to bring counsel or union representation, they were told that they couldn’t tell anyone about the investigation, and they were forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement—which isn’t really a thing in the government, or at least it wasn’t until Trump came along.
FEMA’s...
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