WASHINGTON – Empower Oversight is renewing its request for records related to the Criminal Justice Information Services’ Assistant Director Michael Christman who is the subject of multiple complaints by current and former employees. The agency denied Empower Oversight’s original request, citing a Glomar defense, meaning that the agency neither confirms nor denies the existence of …
WASHINGTON – Empower Oversight is pressing the FBI to go back to the drawing board after what it says was an inadequate search of the FBI’s records in the whistleblower organization’s inquiry about a tip to the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office in the Whitey Bulger case. Empower Oversight received an allegation two years ago …
WASHINGTON – A VA Red Team report obtained by Empower Oversight on the community care options for veterans shows vets’ growing desire to utilize health care out of the VA system. The report, created by health care experts who were convened by the VA to study the community care program, explains why whistleblowers have come …
WASHINGTON – Since 2021, Empower Oversight has been seeking records related to COVID-19 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to shed light on what the NIH knew about the American taxpayer-paid research done at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China. NIH resisted transparency and delayed releasing document on the research, the subsequent …
WASHINGTON – Empower Oversight is pushing back on the Department of Justice’s categorical denial of an Empower Freedom of Information Act request relating to the protected disclosures made by FBI whistleblower Marcus Allen. On Feb. 12, 2024, Empower Oversight placed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Justice Department for records about Allen’s request …
WASHINGTON – Empower Oversight has confirmed through additional video that Veterans Affairs (VA) Undersecretary for Health Dr. Shareef Elnahal has made comments at multiple town halls downplaying the opportunities available for veterans to obtain community care, expressly against the wishes of Congress. Empower previously released a two-minute clip of Elnahal’s remarks at an August 31, …
Empower Oversight has appealed (letter here) a decision by the Department of Justice that partially denied the organization’s request for an entire category of records related to the department’s hiring and employment of Christina Calce, who currently serves on the minority staff of the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary. Empower Oversight argues …
WASHINGTON – Empower Oversight is pressing Attorney General Merrick Garland to address conflicts of interest within the Justice Department that are enabling retaliation against IRS whistleblowers Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) Gary Shapley and Special Agent (SA) Joseph Ziegler. In a letter to the Attorney General, Empower Oversight expresses the concern that in the Department’s prosecution …
WASHINGTON – Empower Oversight is learning from multiple former employees of the Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) that the agency is being used as a personal fiefdom for the Assistant Director by rewarding women with whom he appears to have engaged in inappropriate relationships, among other concerns. The Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) division of …
WASHINGTON – Empower Oversight has filed a lawsuit against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over its failure to comply with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking documents related to cryptocurrency conflicts of interest at the agency. “By slow walking their response to our FOIA request, the SEC is stonewalling Empower’s oversight into …