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Michael German - FBI Agent
WPA Amendments
Reform: In 1990, Congress forced the FBI to implement a long dormant “separate, but equal” Whistleblower Protection Act for its employees. However, the system has been worse than ineffective. Rather than shielding employees from retaliation for whistleblowing, it gives them a false sense of security, and leaves patriotic civil servants out in the cold when they choose to speak out about waste, fraud, abuse or illegality within the Bureau.
The need for reform:
Michael German is a former FBI Special Agent. As an undercover agent, Mr. German twice successfully infiltrated domestic terrorist organizations, resolved pending bombing investigations, and prevented potential acts of terrorism by helping to obtain criminal convictions of several would-be terrorists. Prior to his whistleblowing, Mr. German had an unblemished disciplinary record and was awarded a medal of valor from the Los Angeles Federal Bar Association.
In 2002, he was asked to assist a Tampa Division FBI counterterrorism investigation, prompted by a meeting between a supporter of an international terrorist organization and a leader of a domestic terrorist organization. Several months after joining the investigative team, Mr. German found serious problems with the Tampa Division’s handling of the investigation, including a violation of Title III wiretapping regulations. When Mr. German reported this misconduct, his supervisor asked him to ignore what he had found. Alarmed, he reported the violation up his chain of command, as directed by FBI policy.
Rather than address the problems, Tampa Division officials engaged in a large-scale effort to backdate and falsify official FBI records to hide their mishandling of the terror investigation The Tampa officials were so unconcerned about the internal investigation they actually used white-out to crudely alter some of the FBI documents. Mr. German was cut off from the rest of the investigative team, effectively canceling the investigation before it had started.
Meanwhile, senior FBI officials took concerted steps to retaliate against Mr. German for blowing the whistle. Overlooking his previous successes, the Unit Chief of the Undercover Unit at FBI Headquarters told his staff that Mr. German would never work undercover again. Another proposal for an undercover terrorism operation lingered at headquarters for over a year, and was not even considered for approval by the Review Committee until Mr. German’s name was taken off the assignment. The FBI’s Inspection Division then opened a “broad” investigation into the Tampa mishaps that in reality was a transparent effort to dig up dirt on Mr. German. They found nothing, but the message was clear enough. With no opportunity to resume his successful counterterrorism career, and with no protection from the continuing retaliation, Mr. German was compelled to resign from the FBI in June 2004.
In January of 2006, the Justice Department Office of Inspector General issued a report, which confirms Mr. German’s allegations of wrongdoing and retaliation. Unfortunately, the report amounts to little more than hollow vindication for Mr. German. The IG makes no recommendations to hold accountable those in the Tampa Division that mishandled the counter-terror investigation and there are no disciplinary recommendations for the officials that deliberately backdated and falsified FBI records. The IG report confirms that the FBI retaliated against Mr. German for reporting misconduct, but it intentionally obscures the extent of the retaliation, and holds just one FBI supervisor accountable.
The IG’s findings are now being considered internally by the Justice Department’s Office of Attorney Recruitment and Management (OARM) in an adversarial proceeding in which Mr. German will be required to produce evidence entirely within the control of the Department of Justice. Incredibly, Mr. German now finds himself in an adversarial position with the Inspector General – his supposed institutional “protector” – and he is forced to seek discovery of the very documents he provided to the IG almost four years ago. OARM can deny his discovery requests at its own discretion.
The FBI internal whistleblower system offers little hope for justice for individuals like Mr. German, and does even less to ensure that their legitimate concerns will be addressed in a timely manner, consistent with the national
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