(ThePatriotWire)- According to documents supplied by a whistleblower, hundreds of FBI agents chose to retire or resign between 2004 and 2020 rather than face penalties for allegations of sexual misconduct.
Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley reportedly received information from a whistleblower about a Justice Department internal report titled, “Retirements and Resignations During Unwelcome Sexual Conduct Adjudications.”
According to the report, 665 FBI employees, including 45 senior executive service-level employees, either retired or resigned after an investigation into misconduct was completed but before the Office of Professional Responsibility could issue a final disciplinary letter.
However, Senator Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, suggested that the number could be much higher since the 665 does not include agents who resigned or retired while a misconduct investigation was still underway.
The DOJ’s internal review was conducted in 2020 after the Associated Press reported that there had been “at least six sexual misconduct allegations involving senior FBI officials over the past five years.”
Grassley also received a second document from the whistleblower titled “Inconsistent Adjudication of Non-Consensual Sexual Misconduct.”
This document reveals that low-level FBI officials that were accused of misconduct often faced harsher penalties than those in senior positions accused of misconduct.
According to the document, “higher-graded employees, especially supervisors” were more likely to have their sexual misconduct cases adjudicated under a lesser offense code while “lower-graded employees” had their misconduct adjudicated under a harsher offense code. As a result, the “lower-graded employees” were more likely to face dismissal.
In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, Grassley requested more information about the FBI’s internal sexual misconduct investigations. He called the FBI’s history of abuse and misconduct against women “outrageous and beyond unacceptable.”
In response to Grassley’s whistleblower disclosure, the FBI released a statement claiming that employees of the bureau who would commit sexual misconduct or harassment “have no place in the FBI.”
