ACLJ Files FOIA Lawsuit After DOJ/FBI Fed Leftist Committee Staffers Private Information About Our Whistleblower Clients Before They Testified

The public has a strong interest in a trustworthy and effective FBI. Over the past several years, we’ve learned about instance after instance of FBI politicization and rule-breaking and about attempt after attempt by the FBI to retaliate against whistleblowers.

One of the ways this has happened is by the FBI smearing whistleblowers or selectively leaking their private information. As you know, the ACLJ represents FBI whistleblowers, including Garret O’Boyle and Marcus Allen. We’ve gone to Congress seeking action. And now we have just filed a new federal lawsuit.

Specifically, the new lawsuit we just filed on behalf of our client, Empower Oversight Whistleblowers & Research (Empower Oversight), seeks to enforce the law in support of Empower Oversight’s investigation of DOJ and FBI weaponization against whistleblowers.

Our client, Empower Oversight, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization dedicated to enhancing independent oversight of government and corporate wrongdoing. It fights for the protection of whistleblowers who expose government corruption at the deepest levels while pursuing truth and justice against hyper-politicized agencies. Empower Oversight and the ACLJ have been working together to represent Garret O’Boyle and Marcus Allen. And together, along with others, we submitted a letter to Chairman Jim Jordan’s Weaponization Subcommittee.

The ACLJ just filed this urgent lawsuit on Empower Oversight’s behalf against the Biden-Harris DOJ and FBI to force them to respond to a series of valid Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. The FOIAs pertain to whistleblower protections and the agencies’ selective, politically motivated leaking of whistleblower information to its Leftist allies in Congress to discredit whistleblower testimony that would be embarrassing for the agencies.

Among the issues Empower Oversight is investigating here is the relationship between the DOJ and FBI and congressional committee staffers. In one instance, it appears that a legislative employee, Chistina Calce, donated $74,000 to Democrat candidates while only making just under $96,000. During this time she worked for the DOJ to coordinate its response to congressional oversight. She then left this position to work as Chief Counsel for the Democrat minority on the very congressional committee that is supposed to be overseeing the DOJ. In both of these positions, she was intricately involved in FBI whistleblower matters.

To shed light on the DOJ’s revolving door with the very body that is supposed to be conducting oversight over it, Empower Oversight submitted a request to the DOJ, requesting:

All records discussing DOJ’s consideration and hiring of Ms. Calce, including all records related to her interest in joining the Department, consideration of her for any Department position, any statements of recommendation, evaluations of her qualifications, records relating to interviews with Ms. Calce, notes from any such interviews, and any offers of employment.

Empower Oversight sent that request in May 2023. To date, the DOJ has neither determined if there are responsive records nor certified that none exist, as they are required to do 20 days after they receive the request.

It has also come to light from DOJ records that the FBI apparently provided private information about our clients to an individual minority staffer before they testified before the Weaponization Subcommittee in an attempt to undermine the whistleblowers’ credibility. Such action could directly violate the Privacy Act and show an intent to further harass our clients for following the law and blowing the whistle on FBI corruption to Congress. Subsequently, in June 2024, Empower Oversight requested additional records from both the DOJ and the FBI:

6) All records of communications between any FBI personnel, including any employees with the Office of Congressional Affairs, and any member of the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, any staff member for the Subcommittee, or any staff member for any Subcommittee member between January 1, 2023, and June 7, 2023.

7) All records of communications between any DOJ official or employee, including any employees with the Office of the Attorney General, Office of the Deputy Attorney General, Office of the Associate Attorney General, Office of Legislative Affairs, or Office of Public Affairs, and any member of the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, any staff member for the Subcommittee, or any staff member for any Subcommittee member between January 1, 2023, and June 7, 2023.

Empower Oversight received no responsive records from either the FBI or DOJ and no indication whether such records even exist.

In this lawsuit, we are fighting to enforce the rule of law – even that with which the primary federal law enforcement agency must comply. We’re honored to stand with Empower Oversight to protect whistleblowers, combat agency corruption, and protect and enforce the public’s right to know via FOIA. Agency lawlessness has forced the ACLJ to file countless FOIA lawsuits over the years. Now we get to represent our friends at Empower Oversight to help ensure its lawful FOIA requests aren’t ignored.

To that end, our Complaint seeks a federal court order requiring the DOJ and the FBI to conduct diligent, expedited searches for any and all records responsive to Empower Oversight’s FOIA requests and demonstrate that they employed reasonable search methods in search of responsive records. We also ask for an order requiring the agencies to produce the responsive records by a certain date and an order enjoining the agencies from continuing to withhold any and all non-exempt responsive records. We also seek a court declaration that the DOJ and FBI violated Plaintiff’s statutory rights under 5 U.S.C. § 552.

We will keep you updated as this new lawsuit progresses.

We need you to stand with us as we stand with brave whistleblowers and with our friends at Empower Oversight. We can’t just talk about the problems. We’ve got to do something about them. We are taking action, and we need your help.