Amid ongoing accusations of the FBI becoming a weaponized agency against the American people after storming former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and targeting pro-life activists standing up for unborn children, a whistleblower has revealed more damning evidence in the agency surrounding sexual misconduct allegations.
According to a top U.S. senator, the anonymous informant said hundreds of FBI employees resigned or retired from the agency over 15 years amid sexual misconduct allegations primarily victimizing women.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter Wednesday to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, saying that 665 FBI employees, including 45 senior officials, left the bureau to “avoid accountability” from 2004 to 2020. However, Grassley speculated that the number could be much higher, considering the dataset does not include retirement or resignations that may have occurred during or before the investigation.
“The allegations and records paint a disgraceful picture of abuse that women within the FBI have had to live with for many years,” Grassley wrote in the letter first shared with The Associated Press. “This abuse and misconduct is outrageous and beyond unacceptable.”
Grassley said the whistleblower’s report showed a “systemic failure” within the Justice Department and the FBI to protect female employees from sexual harassment and sexual misconduct in the workplace, adding that officials failed to punish those employees guilty of such misconduct sufficiently.
“FBI employees should not have to suffer under daily abuse and misconduct by their colleagues and supervisors,” Grassley wrote.
David J. Shaffer, a Washington attorney representing several alleged victims of sexual misconduct in the FBI, told The Associated Press that “the most serious abuse of the FBI disciplinary system is to retaliate against the very women who complain by starting investigations against them after they report sexual misconduct.”
Shaffer said it discourages reporting in the FBI “due to fear of retaliation.”
Tracy Walder, a former FBI agent, left the bureau in 2006 after she filed a sexual harassment complaint. And although she does not believe the entirety of the FBI behaves in such a way, the misconduct is allegedly pervasive.
“However, because of the way I was treated,” she told The Associated Press. “I feel a sense of shame and ‘What if?’ And this behavior has been allowed to continue for decades.”
A spokesman for the FBI told The Washington Examiner that the agency “looks critically” at itself and would continue to make improvements.
“The bottom line is, employees who commit gross misconduct and sexual harassment have no place in the FBI,” the spokesman said. “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.”
The AP reported that Grassley’s office declined to reveal the whistleblower’s name to protect the person’s identity.