It ruins my morning to read yet again that the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General (OIG) and Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) are investigating Justice Department misconduct--whether it's USAgate, or the hiring of Jay "We need White History Month" Apperson. These offices should not be given the same weight as Congress, or any weight at all. They have lost all credibility in my book because of my personal experience of having Glenn A. Fine and H. Marshall Jarrett investigate the destruction of evidence and obstruction of justice in the case of "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh, only for me (the complainant) to become the target of the investigation itself.
When the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General (OIG) first contacted me regarding the leak of e-mails in the case of "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh, it was an agent named Ronald Powell who called. I cut our conversation short because he clearly had no interest in finding out why my e-mails had been leaked (because they had "disappeared" from the file in contravention of a federal court discovery order.) Powell’s called back and left a message: "I just want to emphasize this is a voluntary interview and a voluntary conversation, so if you don’t want to talk to me anymore, that’s fine, that’s your prerogative."
Obviously, it was not fine to exercise my right. Powell soon went to my private law firm and told them I was a "criminal" under "criminal investigation." (This violated the Justice Department's own rules against identifying a third-party suspect unless that party has been officially charged with the misconduct at issue.) He told my firm I would steal client files. The OIG leaned heavily on my firm to act as an agent of the government, in order to accomplish what the OIG could not.
The OIG drafted an affidavit for the firm stating that I did not leak, and instructed the firm to tell me to "sign or resign," which Hawkins, Delafield & Wood did. I refused to sign the affidavit because I was Newsweek's source, as was my right under the Whistleblower Protection Act (disclosures to the media have been recognized by the Federal Circuit as a valid way of blowing the whistle.)
The firm then put me on an involuntary, indefinited, unpaid leave of absense, which amounted to constructive discharge. When I applied for and was awarded meager unemployment compensation benefits, the OIG then assisted my firm with contesting those benefits. This is outrageous. Since when does the U.S. Government go after a private citizens' lawfully-received entitlement from a system into which she contributed as an employee for ten years?
The icing on the cake was Glenn Fine telling my attorney they they "looked into it" (my whistleblower allegations), and they "were not going to pursue it." They didn’t look very deeply because they didn't even bother to ask me, the whistleblower, what happened. They didn’t bother to interview the complainant! Instead, they referred me to the U.S. Attorney's Office in D.C. for criminal prosecution--for what I was never told.
A year and a half and $50,000 in legal fees later, the criminal case closed with no charges ever being brought.
I thought this would be the end of this Kafkaesque nightmare, but enter the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) to pick up the retaliation where OIG left off. OPR referred me to the state bars in which I'm licensed as an attorney--based on a secret report under seal with the court to which I did not have access. Sound a little Guantanamo Bay-ish? The Maryland Bar eventually dismissed the complaint, but the D.C. Bar Complaint is still pending after nearly four years.
Are the OIG and OPR embarrassed? I don't know, but they should be. And I hope my personal expeience can illuminate why the Congress and media should take no comfort in the fact that OIG and OPR are investigating USAgate. They're not really interested in going after the perpetrators of the misconduct and cover-up, but rather the people who brought it to light.
For news accounts verifying this, do to: http://www.patriotictruthteller.net