GAP’s new YouTube video showcases DC Fire Chief Dennis Rubin’s questionable statements and behavior in a deposition, regarding the cases of former firefighter Chris Sullivan and former general counsel for the Fire Department (and GAP client) Theresa Cusick.

By Dave Statter

WASHINGTON, DC -- The former general counsel for the DC Fire & EMS Department says she was transferred out of the agency after telling Chief Dennis Rubin about a cover-up involving one of his top aides. Theresa Cusick spent nine years as the department's lawyer and was moved out of her job three months after Rubin's arrival in 2007.

By Dave Statter

It is a fact of life for a modern fire chief that you or your department will get sued. I have covered many lawsuits against the District of Columbia Fire & EMS Department and its leaders in my almost 30 years of reporting on the department. What I have rarely seen are the inner workings of one of these lawsuits. That changed today when the whistleblower protection organization, Government Accountability Project (GAP). released a series of clips from the deposition of Chief Dennis Rubin in early October. It is in connection with a lawsuit filed by the former general counsel for the DC Fire & EMS Department, Theresa Cusick.

by Teri Sforza

He’s been warned that judges can be kindly Dr. Jekylls in the courtroom, and terrifying Mr. Hydes when they write their decisions in the quiet of their chambers.

He’s been warned that fired federal employees who fight their terminations get their jobs back less than 5 percent of the time.

by Matthew Harwood

A former federal air marshal and whistleblower yesterday finally received his day in court to appeal his termination by the Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) three years ago for disclosing sensitive information to the media in the summer of 2003. The appellant claims that his disclosure protected the public from vulnerabilities that could have led to another 9-11 style attack.

Today at 11 a.m., the case of GAP client Robert MacLean will be heard before the Merit Systems Protection Board. MacLean was fired for blowing the whistle on actions taken by the Transportation Security Administration to cancel Air Marshal service on cross-country flights during a ‘Code Red’ hijacker alert period. Years after revealing this disclosure, which resulted in the canceling of the unsafe order, MacLean was fired for his part in revealing “sensitive security information” – a pseudo-classification level that was retroactively applied to the information in MacLean’s disclosure.

Click here to read a a fact sheet detailing MacLean’s case

by the Corporate Crime Reporter

For the first time in decades, advocates for government whistleblowers have a seat at the White House policy table.

“After 1,000 points of darkness, we now have 1,000 points of light,” Tom Devine, legal director of the Government Accountability Project told Corporate Crime Reporter last week.

“Before President Obama – either the Republicans didn’t have the time of day for us, or the Democrats like Clinton and Carter didn’t have the time of day for us until the decision was made and then they would call us in and say – thank you for all you have done. But we never had a voice before the decisions were made until the decisions were made.”

Devine said that President Obama “has enfranchised the civil liberties activists for the first time in 30 years.”

“Now we have a voice,” Devine said. “We are meeting with White House ethics counsel Norm Eisen. We are meeting with the general counsel for the Office of Management and Budget. We are meeting with the top appointees at the Department of Justice.”

“It has made a major difference – step by exhausting plodding step,” Devine said.