Grassley Investigation into FBI Sexual Misconduct Reveals ‘Fox is Guarding the Hen House’

Grassley Investigation into FBI Sexual Misconduct Reveals 'Fox is Guarding the Hen House'

FBI turning a blind eye to sexual harassment internally, and in casework

WASHINGTON - Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is shining new light on the prevalence of sexual misconduct at the FBI, amid continued agency stonewalling and empty assurances from Director Christopher Wray that he would "follow up" on Grassley's inquiries. Despite FBI's lack of cooperation, Grassley's ongoing oversight reveals the FBI is still not protecting its own employees from sexual harassment and is treating child sex abuse cases as a non-priority.

Grassley today sent a pointed letter to the FBI and Justice Department (DOJ). In it, he urged the FBI to own up to its failures and provide the data he's requested for years. The information Grassley recently received via protected whistleblower disclosures suggests his oversight dating back to October 2022 is as timely as ever.

Sexual Misconduct Persists among FBI Employees:

Latest records show the assistant director who requested a review of disciplinary patterns at the FBI - which found hundreds of senior officials voluntarily retired or resigned to evade accountability for sexual misconduct allegations - left the FBI while he, himself, was under investigation.

"Apparently, one of the reasons DOJ and its component agencies can't straighten out their problems of workplace harassment is that the fox is guarding the hen house," Grassley wrote. "The supreme irony of [then-Executive Assistant Director of the Human Resources Branch, Jeffrey] Sallet requesting the [Office of Disciplinary Appeals] review of senior officials retiring or resigning to avoid disciplinary action is that 'Sallet left the FBI and federal service while this investigation was ongoing.'"

FBI Moves Agents off Child Sex Abuse Cases, onto January 6 Cases:

Per protected whistleblower disclosures, the FBI has reassigned personnel from high-volume child exploitation cases to January 6 cases. Grassley notes FBI's failure to dedicate adequate resources to child sex abuse cases is a decades-old problem politicization at the bureau is exacerbating. One reassigned whistleblower said they sat "essentially idle for eight to nine months" on January 6 cases while child sex abuse cases piled up. An Assistant Special Agent in Charge reportedly told that whistleblower, "Child sexual abuse material investigations were no longer an FBI priority […]."

"One thing is certain," Grassley wrote, "The FBI will not be able to remedy its many failings in this area if it treats sexual abuse against children as a non-priority."

Background:

DOJ Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and Congress have long pushed FBI to address sexual harassment across the bureau. In 2021, DOJ OIG issued the FBI two recommendations on its demonstrated failures to hold employees responsible for wrongdoing after they separate from the agency, particularly when they do so while under investigation. As of today, approximately three years later, the FBI has not closed either of those recommendations.

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