Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) just made a surprising revelation about the Federal Bureau of Intelligence (FBI).
The Washington Examiner reports that, according to Grassley, between 2004 and 2020, hundreds of FBI agents resigned over sexual misconduct allegations.
Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, says that he received this information from a whistleblower.
The whistleblower reportedly gave Grassley a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) internal report containing all of the details of the situation. Grassley publicly released the findings of the report on Thursday.
The findings
The report is titled, “Retirements and Resignations During Unwelcome Sexual Conduct Adjudications.”
The investigation found:
665 FBI employees, including 45 [Senior Executive Service (SES)]-level employees have retired or resigned following an FBI or [Justice Department Office of Inspector General (OIG)] investigation into alleged misconduct, but prior to [the Office of Professional Responsibility’s (OPR)] issuance of a final disciplinary letter.
There are two things to note here. The first, as Grassley put it, is that the resignations were carried out ” in order to avoid accountability.”
The second is the number: 665. It’s already a big number, but Grassley explains on his website why it could be even bigger. He writes:
The data doesn’t include resignations or retirements that occurred prior to the initiation of or during an ongoing misconduct investigation, so the actual number of employees who departed the FBI following allegations of sexual misconduct could be much higher.
Grassley also points to a second document that he received, titled, “Inconsistent Adjudication of Non-Consensual Sexual Misconduct,” which shows:
[H]igher-graded [FBI] employees, especially supervisors, are more likely to have their sexual misconduct case adjudicated under Offense Code 5.22, and therefore subjected to lesser penalties; whereas, lower-graded employees are seemingly more likely to be adjudicated under Offense Code 5.20, and have a statistically greater likelihood of being dismissed for their sexual misconduct.
Grassley calls on Wray
Grassley followed the report up with a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, asking for more information about the situation.
“Simply put, these two documents show a systemic failure within the Justice Department and FBI to protect female employees from sexual harassment and sexual misconduct in the workplace and a failure to sufficiently punish employees for that same misconduct,” Grassley wrote.
The FBI, for its part, has put out a statement in response, saying:
The FBI looks critically at ourselves and will continue to make improvements. The bottom line is, employees who commit gross misconduct and sexual harassment have no place in the FBI. We prioritize investigation and adjudication of sexual harassment and misconduct cases, and when allegations of sexual harassment are substantiated, FBI employees face severe consequences, including permanent demotion, removal from supervisory ranks, or termination.