Reaction Of Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy
To The DOJ Inspector General’s Report
On Allegations Of A Double Standard At The FBI
Fri., Nov. 15, 2002

[(FRI., NOV. 15) – The report by the Department of Justice’s Inspector General released Friday on the FBI's double standard continues the examination of the FBI initiated in the Judiciary Committee's FBI oversight hearings launched 15 months ago by Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), which were the catalyst for the launching of this investigation by the Office of Inspector General.  During one of the committee’s hearings in July 2001, Supervisory Agent John Roberts, a longtime Unit Chief in the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility, and other agents who testified, revealed publicly for the first time the "double standard" that today’s report confirms.  At that hearing, Leahy publicly released the FBI Law Enforcement Ethics Unit's 1999 report, "FBI Senior Executive Service Accountability: A Higher Standard or A Double Standard?" which documented the double standard.  The report released today also notes that investigations are ongoing into charges of retaliation against the FBI agents who have raised claims of a double standard in discipline, and it endorses elements of the Leahy-Grassley FBI Reform Act (S.1974), which was unanimously approved in April by the Judiciary Committee but has been blocked from a Senate vote since then by anonymous Republican holds.  Similar types of allegations of retaliation also led Leahy and Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) to jointly write to FBI Director Robert Mueller last week expressing their concern.  After the July 2001 hearing, and as part of the committee’s oversight of the FBI, Leahy and Grassley on July 10, 2001, asked for an investigation by the General Accounting Office of allegations of improper conduct by senior FBI personnel in connection with an October 9, 1997, "sham" conference set up so senior FBI officials could have expenses paid to attend a retirement dinner for former FBI Assistant Director Larry Potts.  That GAO report, released Dec. 21, 2001, is cited in today’s IG  report, at p. 29.  Leahy today (Friday) released the following statement about today's IG report:]

“These findings echo what the Judiciary Committee's has discovered through 15 months of oversight work.  This report further documents the ‘strong, and not unreasonable, perception’ that a demoralizing double standard exists at the FBI that means slaps on the wrist for senior officials for misconduct that gets line agents fired.  The Inspector General recommends adoption of double-standard reforms in the FBI Reform Act, and this endorsement will boost our efforts to enact these changes to help end this double standard.  I also welcome the indication within this report that the FBI itself will now support enactment of these provisions.  Until now, the Attorney General and the FBI have taken no formal position on the bill.  It is unfortunate that we have to learn this from the Inspector General instead of from the Attorney General, and that we are only finding this out on the eve of the Senate’s adjournment.

“I hope the FBI now will also support the improved whistleblower protections in the FBI Reform Act.  Witnesses like longtime FBI Unit Chief John Roberts, who has had a distinguished career in law enforcement and who first brought these serious management issues to light, should be praised, not punished, for their courage.

“The two ‘troubling cases’ the Inspector General examined in the report -- the investigation of the Ruby Ridge incident and 'Pottsgate' -- where the taxpayers paid for a goodbye party for a friend of the former FBI Director -- are emblematic.

“About the Ruby Ridge incident, the report concludes that ‘substantial problems marred the original investigation of the Ruby Ridge incident and that ‘the original investigations conducted by the FBI were significantly flawed, perhaps to protect senior officials.’ (Report at p. 32)

“In addition to the problems inherent in any whitewash, the Inspector General correctly points out that it took nine years for the FBI's disciplinary process to come to an end. During this period, not only did the FBI suffer tremendous blows to its morale, but, amazingly, the report points out that numerous senior FBI officials under investigation received large cash bonuses and were promoted. (Report at p. 65-67)

“Over the last year of FBI oversight hearings, we have learned that many of the FBI’s problems are related to a culture that has developed and ossified over many decades.  Especially in the post 9-11 world, we cannot afford a double standard that saps morale from the FBI’s front-line agents.  Too much is at stake for the FBI to perpetuate this culture of protecting senior officials and covering up management problems.”

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