NEWS: White House muzzles FEMA critics
Experts decry illegal retaliation against whistleblowers, file legal complaints against Trump administration.
Bottom Line Up Front:
More than 30 FEMA employees were placed on indefinite leave last week, just hours after signing a letter to Congress warning that cuts to FEMA were sending America spiraling toward a lethal disaster. Now three watchdog groups are saying the Trump administration illegally punished these truth-tellers.
WHAT HAPPENED
On August 25, 191 FEMA employees submitted a letter of dissent to Congress, titled The FEMA Katrina Declaration, warning that the White House cuts to the agency were putting American lives in grave danger. More than 30 of the signers included their names publicly; the rest remained anonymous out of fear of reprisal.
Just one day later, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) placed the known signers on immediate administrative leave, ordering them to cease all work and cut contact with FEMA or DHS colleagues. And according to my sources, they began a hunt for the anonymous signers, too.
This week three watchdog groups struck back, accusing the Trump administration of illegal conduct designed to muzzle the whistleblowers. The Government Accountability Project (joined by Lawyers for Good Government and Stand Up for Science) filed official legal complaints with Congress, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, and the DHS Office of Inspector General, demanding an investigation and immediate reinstatement of the retaliated employees.
WHAT IT MEANS
This appears to be the largest coordinated act of whistleblower retaliation since DHS was created. I can’t think of anything comparable. Experts agree the DHS crackdown is an obvious violation of the law.
“DHS’s actions are blatantly illegal,” said David Seide, senior counsel at the Government Accountability Project. “We salute these brave whistleblowers and, with our allies and partners, back their rights to speak truth to power.”
As Traci Feit Love, Founder and Executive Director of Lawyers for Good Government, noted, “Retaliation against them is not just illegal, it’s a direct assault on the democratic principles that protect public servants who expose threats to public safety.”
“Their decision to blow the whistle reflects the importance of their work: saving people from disasters,” added Colette Delawalla of Stand Up for Science.
This is part of a broad and sweeping trend under the Trump administration. The White House and its subordinate agencies are using the machinery of government to punish dissent, over and over and over. Whistleblowers are being pushed out, watchdogs are being defunded, the various Inspectors General are under fire, and now, FEMA responders are being silenced.
But it gets even worse, because the administration is not content to just eliminate the dissenters. They are hellbent on replacing them with loyalists who will execute the president’s orders unflinchingly, as I discussed the other day on CNN (below).
WHAT’S NEXT
The whistleblower complaints are an important step. We should all be grateful that groups like Government Accountability Project are helping to lead the charge in putting the Trump administration’s feet to the fire for its revenge agenda.
In the meantime, these FEMA dissenters — people who committed their careers to helping all of us in our time of need —remain in bureaucratic limbo and unsure whether they’ll keep their jobs.
So if you do one thing this week, show them support online, on social media, or by signing the Katrina Declaration with them in solidarity. The White House may be trying to shut them up. But they won’t shut us up, no matter how hard they try.
I urge everyone to sign the Katrina Petition in solidarity with the FEMA whistleblowers.
I’ve signed. Continue to keep us updated.