James Schwab recently resigned from ICE after the Department of Justice flat-out lied about an immigration raid in Oakland. In February, ICE carried out a series of raids, in defiance of Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf’s declaration that Oakland would be a “sanctuary city.” There was tension as Schaaf publicly announced the raids were imminent. That didn’t sit well with some government officials and they went forward with the raids, arresting 232 people. Despite arresting 16 percent more people than a typical raid, James Schwab says he helped craft a statement taking aim at Mayor Schaaf, specifically saying her pre-emptive statement allowed “some” to slip through the net.
He helped craft a statement to the media saying, "Some of them were able to elude us thanks to the mayor's irresponsible decision." He was comfortable with that statement, he said, because it included the words "some of."
Schwab says what happened next absolutely shocked him. Attorney General Jeff Sessions made a speech about the ICE Oakland raids and told the public that Mayor Schaff’s actions allowed 800 criminals to escape. Schwab said this was a flat-out lie and he was extremely uncomfortable the attorney general was giving the public false information. Schwab said Department of Justice officials refused to correct it and their perpetuation of a “flat-out lie” prompted him to resign from the agency.
"I could not fathom staying at an organization that was OK with lying to the American public. I hate that. In 17 years in the military, at the Department of Defense as a civilian, at NASA, and now at Homeland Security, I have never been asked to lie. I have never been asked to perpetuate a lie, which is the same as lying," Schwab said.
That was more than three months ago. Fast forward to this week and James Schwab is sitting down for an interview with CBS News, wanting to tell his story to the public. During the middle of the interview, someone begins loudly and persistently knocking on his front door. At first they appear to ignore it because Schwab wasn’t expecting anyone and when they note how persistent the knocking is, he finally interrupts the interview to see who’s at the door. To his shock, and that of the CBS reporter, two Department of Homeland Security agents were there to aggressively question Schwab about the leak to the Oakland mayor’s office. Schwab repeatedly denied that he leaked to the Oakland mayor.
"No. I've never met her before. I never contacted Libby Schaaf," Schwab said. "Never. I would never tell her. I would never tell anyone...They were very serious. He was very stern with me, and it was concerning."
Schwab said it was "absolutely" an intimidation technique.
"Why, three months later, are we doing this?" Schwab said. "This is intimidation. And this is why people won't come out and speak against the government."
Is this where we are now? Government agents disrupting a whistleblower’s interview to aggressively question the whistleblower? The message was clear: we are watching you and we will retaliate. This is the type of thing you expect to happen in Russia or China or North Korea, not in the United States. Schwab went on to say that he will not be deterred from telling the truth because he’s talked with others who want to speak out but he can’t let them get away with the lies or the intimidation.
"That's one of the most important reasons that I'm doing this is that – so that people hear that someone else stood up, that someone else said, 'No.' And was concerned with it…To actually prepare and stand out in front of the public and perpetuate something that you know is absolutely false is not okay. And no special agent from the Department of Homeland Security is gonna stop me from saying that," Schwab said.
You can see the interview with James Schwab at CBS News.