CONGRESS STEPS IN TO PROTECT WHISTLEBLOWER

Righting wrongs in federal law enforcement isn’t easy. Dr. Frederick
Whitehurst can vouch for that.

Whitehurst was an FBI chemist who in 1995 charged that FBI Crime Laboratory
managers lacked proper training and routinely ignored or tried to cover-up
problems in handling evidence.

He said FBI labs were dirty and dusty, which made accurately analyzing
chemical evidence all but impossible. He said lab employees sometimes lied
as witnesses to bolster government cases, and that he discovered some lab
officials had rewritten reports he and others had produced for high-profile
cases, such as the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, so that they more closely
adhered to the government version of what happened.

Whitehurst began reporting his concerns to OPR in 1986, and continued to do
so for several years. He got no response. In the spring of 1993, he began
sending letters to the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General.

The Inspector General is charged with promoting economy, efficiency and
effectiveness at the Justice Department and investigates individuals who
are accused of financial, contractual or criminal misconduct in the
department’s programs and operations.

Inspector General Michael Bromwich said that while his department found
"serious and significant" deficiencies in the way the FBI laboratories
operated, Whitehurst’s allegations that "many employees within the lab
repeatedly committed perjury, fabricated evidence, obstructed justice, and
suppressed exculpatory evidence" could not be substantiated.

As soon as the Justice Department received the report, Whitehurst was
suspended from his $95,000-a-year job and escorted from the building by
security. He then filed suit against the Justice Department for violating
the federal whistleblower’s law, which is supposed to protect employees who
reveal wrongdoing, and for violating the federal Privacy Act for making
public his allegations.

Eventually, he agreed to mediation and so far has received $1.16 million
from the government in exchange for agreeing to leave the FBI.

The Justice Department also paid his $258,580 legal fees and agreed that it
wouldn’t pursue criminal or disciplinary actions against him.

The FBI’s removal of Whitehurst caused an outcry in Congress. Sen. Charles
Grassley, R-Iowa, accused the Justice Department of exacting retribution
against Whitehurst for whistle-blowing.

"The FBI would have preferred to get rid of the messenger," Grassley told
the media after the FBI announced Whitehurst’s ouster early this year,
hailing the chemist for his "immense public service."

Whitehurst has since founded the National Whistleblower Center’s Forensic
Justice Project, located in Washington D.C. The group is reviewing past FBI
laboratory work to check for errors.

"These [lab technicians and scientists] were violating the civil rights of
people in the courts of law, denying them fair trials and due process," he
said last week.

"I want to know who got hurt. I am going to figure this thing out. I’m
going to make a living figuring it out."

Checked-by: Richard Lake