The government watchdog group known as Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has obtained a largely unredacted version of a whistleblower complaint filed in 2019 against then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and the complaint reveals troubling allegations about Pompeo’s conduct. As summarized by CREW, the “alleged misconduct included false or misleading statements to the agency’s legal department, misuse of government resources on personal and political activities potentially prohibited by the Hatch Act, verbal abuse of employees by Mike and Susan Pompeo and directives to staff not to communicate in writing in order to evade transparency laws.”
In their complaint, the whistleblower wrote regarding the problems they identified that, ahead of lodging their complaint, they were “unaware that any resolution was reached, potentially because senior officials in the Executive Secretariat repeatedly declined to seek clarification or guidance from [the Office of the Legal Adviser] despite requests from subordinates to do so.” According to CREW, a memo reveals that the Office of Investigations within the inspector general’s office overseeing the State Department wound down its file on the complaint in July 2020 — shortly after Steve Linick was removed from his role as State Department inspector general after Pompeo pushed for the firing. The so-called Office of Evaluations and Special Projects within the inspector general’s office handled the matter from there on out.
That latter office eventually issued a report “finding that Mike and Susan Pompeo repeatedly misused government resources for personal tasks,” as newly explained by CREW. That office did not release public findings regarding certain other allegations made by the whistleblower, and CREW noted this week that “the agency’s decision to release previously-redacted information to CREW indicates no investigation is ongoing.” The watchdog organization procured these latest materials amid proceedings surrounding a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that they filed, seeking records relevant to Pompeo’s corruption. CREW noted that officials “should ensure that the whistleblower’s allegations have been thoroughly investigated and take action to hold Pompeo and implicated career officials accountable for any wrongdoing.” Read more regarding Pompeo at this link.
