The Trump administration has launched an inside investigation into FEMA staff who signed a public letter to Congress warning that the administration’s overhaul of the disaster reduction agency is undermining emergency response and endangering the general public.
As a part of the probe, the agency has ordered the workers — who had been placed on leave in August — to signal non-disclosure agreements and schedule interviews with investigators, based on 5 sources and inside emails reviewed by NCS.
At least seven FEMA staffers obtained emails Tuesday from investigators at the Office of Professional Responsibility, which included the non-disclosure varieties, the sources advised NCS.
Of the greater than 180 present and former FEMA staffers who signed the August letter, most did so anonymously. Only 36 signed publicly, although it’s unclear what number of had been nonetheless employed at the time of its launch.
FEMA has not disclosed the entire variety of workers the agency positioned on paid go away.
The emails point out that the inquiry will not be a prison investigation and direct the FEMA staff to contact investigators for extra data. Some had been ordered to submit for interviews inside 24 hours, at the same time as they requested time to seek the advice of authorized counsel, a number of sources mentioned.
The non-disclosure type reads: “As this inquiry is sensitive in nature, you are hereby instructed not to disclose information relating to this official inquiry to any other person(s), except as may be appropriate under applicable law. Failure to comply with this directive may subject you to disciplinary action under appropriate charges, such as failure to follow instructions or interfering with or impeding an official investigation.”
The non-disclosure specifies that the settlement doesn’t supersede current whistleblower protections. However, legal professionals for the FEMA staff argue that the investigation is an intimidation tactic and sure constitutes unlawful retaliation in opposition to the workers for exercising their first modification and whistleblower rights.
NCS has reached out to FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the agency, for remark.
In late August, FEMA placed at least a dozen employees on paid administrative leave, efficient instantly, in the future after they publicly signed an open letter to Congress criticizing the Trump administration’s dismantling of FEMA in latest months.
The letter, titled “Katrina Declaration,” accused Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem of undermining FEMA’s authority, ignoring congressional mandates and appointing unqualified leaders. Those signing the petition referred to as for FEMA to be protected against political interference and for its workforce to be shielded from politically motivated firings.
“It is not surprising that some of the same bureaucrats who presided over decades of inefficiency are now objecting to reform,” a FEMA spokesperson mentioned in an announcement to NCS at the time. “Our obligation is to survivors, not to protecting broken systems. Under the leadership of Secretary Noem, FEMA will return to its mission of assisting Americans at their most vulnerable.”
Several signers have sought assist from attorneys with the Government Accountability Project and Lawyers for Good Government, two whistleblower safety organizations.
“This is intimidation and patently violates the whistleblower laws,” Government Accountability Project Senior Counsel David Seide mentioned of the investigation. “(These workers) filed a petition and were put on administrative leave immediately. That’s retaliation. Now they’re being investigated, and that’s retaliation too.”
When they had been placed on go away, the workers had been ordered to “conduct no business, visit no FEMA/DHS facility and contact no FEMA/DHS personnel,” based on an August electronic mail to FEMA staff reviewed by NCS. They had been additionally required to supply private electronic mail addresses after their FEMA accounts had been suspended.
Amy Powell, litigation director for Lawyers for Good Government, mentioned the group “is deeply concerned about reports that FEMA is gagging whistleblowers and launching retaliatory investigations.”
In an announcement to NCS, Powell added, “We sincerely hope that FEMA is instead investigating the mismanagement of disaster preparedness described by the Katrina Declaration and the retaliation against whistleblowers.”
Seide mentioned the administration’s newest techniques mirror its efforts to punish more than 100 staffers from the Environmental Protection Agency, who had been positioned on go away after signing the same letter in July.
Earlier this month, Seide and different attorneys despatched a letter to congress urging lawmakers to analyze the “illegal retaliation” in opposition to the FEMA workers and guarantee their reinstatement, writing, “These actions blatantly violate the federal laws protecting whistleblowers.”
Last week, 4 Democratic members of Congress despatched a letter to Noem and performing FEMA Administrator David Richardson, expressing concern that the administration had retaliated in opposition to the workers for making protected whistleblower disclosures.
“The actions your offices took will produce a chilling effect on any civil servant who wishes to respectfully dissent or provide competing opinions to the Administration, even if backed by evidence,” the lawmakers wrote. “You must follow the law and return these employees to their regular status immediately.”