(The Epoch Times)—FBI Director Kash Patel on Thursday announced that the bureau has reached a settlement agreement with 10 FBI whistleblowers that includes backpay and other benefits.
In a post on X, Patel said that “agreements have been reached with 10 FBI Whistleblowers (and counsel) to include a combination of backpay, security clearance, and reinstatement,” before thanking President Donald Trump and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
The FBI director did not go into detail about the agreement, but Grassley, the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had previously urged Attorney General Pam Bondi and Patel to take action to undo what he described as “retaliatory personnel actions” against FBI whistleblowers. He also requested that the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI restore security clearance to those individuals.
“My office has been told that, in many of these cases, the suspension of their security clearances resulted in immediate, indefinite suspensions without pay while the FBI improperly and intentionally delayed the process for these individuals to contest the adverse action,” Grassley said in a statement issued in March.
He added that government conduct caused financial hardship to the whistleblowers and “placed them in the impossible situation to either resign their position without completing their legal challenge or continue challenging the suspension or revocation of their clearance while suspended without pay with no prospect of obtaining new employment.”
Patel did not release the names of the whistleblowers who are entitled to the new agreement. The Epoch Times contacted the FBI’s press office for comment on Thursday.
Last year, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz told a House panel that his office had concerns about the DOJ’s handling of whistleblowers and added that “employees with a security clearance are particularly vulnerable to retaliation because an employee’s due process protections and right to appeal a security clearance suspension or revocation are more limited than the processes that exist for employment actions unrelated to an employee’s security clearance.”
“This is by design, as deference is given to an agency to ensure that access to classified information can be promptly restricted when a legitimate security concern arises,” he said.
Earlier this month, on Aug. 7, the FBI Agents Association said that it “is deeply concerned by reports that FBI Special Agents—case agents and senior leaders alike—are going to be summarily fired without due process for doing their jobs investigating potential federal crimes.”
The statement added that the association is “actively reviewing all legal options to defend our members.”
The DOJ, which oversees the FBI, recently moved to terminate three former DOJ officials, including two who had worked on Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach cases. Those officials in late July filed a lawsuit against the department, alleging they were unlawfully removed from their positions.
In their complaint, former DOJ officials Michael Gordon, Patricia Hartman, and Joseph Tirrell alleged that their terminations violated federal law and longstanding precedents that they say are meant to protect civil servants.
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Author: Jack Phillips
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