Whistleblower Lawyer & Attorney : National Whistleblower Legal Defense and Education Fund : Whistleblower Protection, Fraud Claims : Washington DC

For more links to interesting articles and blog posts about whistleblowers and whistleblower law, check out our Whistleblower Link Blog. Where is it? It's on the left hand side bar, just scroll down!


Also, subscribe to our RSS feeds or email list by clicking here.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

Federal employees got a bit of good news last month when the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia struck down a district court’s attempt to keep federal employees from being able to litigate non-discrimination claims as part of a “mixed case” complaint: one which can be filed in federal district court when no administrative decision is issued after 120 days. 


This decision, Ikossi v. Department of the Navy, together with two prior Court of Appeals decisions, Butler v. West and Evano v. Reno, form a trilogy of cases that produce a roadmap that should that should enable federal employees the right to join a federal Whistleblower Protection Act claim together with a Title VII discrimination claim and proceed to federal court on the entire claim in federal district court when the agency fails to issue a final administrative decision within 120 days. 


According to Michael Kohn, who is General Counsel to the National Whistleblower Center and served as lead counsel in the Ikossi case:

“the most effective way to escape the reach of the MSPB and the Federal Circuit’s stranglehold on whistleblower claims is for those individuals who can raise a Title VII discrimination claim in to file a “mixed case” complaint with a federal agency’s Equal Employment Opportunity (‘EEO”) office claiming that the adverse action flowed from unlawful discrimination and as a result of having engaged in protected whistleblower conduct.”     

• Email This
• Print
• Comments (1)
• Trackbacks

As reported in the New York Times, ABC News, the Associated Press, and other media outlets yesterday, the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General has issued a report on their continuing investigation of the FBI's widely criticized "national security letters" program.  The IG found that top FBI counterterrorism officials, including the current Assistant Director for Counterterrorism and Executive Assistant Director for Counterterrorism, signed off on "blanket" NSLs which authorized the warrantless obtainment of records for over 3,000 phone numbers.

Many of the deficiencies brought to light in the IG's findings were reported by Special Agent Bassem Youssef, an FBI whistleblower who has been critical of the NSL program.

More information:

• National Whistleblower Center 3/13/08 Press Release
• Inspector General's Report on NSLs Dated 3/13/08
• More on FBI Whistleblower Bassem Youssef

 

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks