When two elite IRS investigators followed the evidence, they ran headfirst into a wall of political obstruction.
Shielded by Power tells the inside story of the Hunter Biden tax investigation through the voices of the whistleblowers who risked everything to expose it. With exclusive interviews and documented proof, this film pulls back the curtain on corruption at the highest levels of government.
Mission
Empower Oversight Whistleblowers & Research (EMPOWR) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization dedicated to enhancing independent oversight of government and corporate wrongdoing. EMPOWR works to help insiders document and report corruption to the proper authorities while also seeking to hold authorities accountable to act on those reports.
In our Constitutional republic, power resides with the people—exercised through their elected representatives. To act as an effective check on unelected bureaucrats and corporate elites, the people and their representatives need to know the facts.
With decades of experience conducting congressional investigations that exposed major scandals and experts who wrote the laws on modern-day whistleblower protections, EMPOWR is well-positioned to combat waste, fraud, and abuse both inside and outside government.
Tristan Leavitt, President of Empower Oversight, leads the group with a wealth of experience from the halls of Congress, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, and most recently from the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, allowing him to demand answers on behalf of whistleblowers who report wrongdoing.
Jason Foster, Founder and Chairman of Empower Oversight, has 22 years of Capitol Hill experience, including 14 years as counsel to the “patron saint of whistleblowers” U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and continues to spearhead Empower Oversight’s successful pressure campaigns on behalf of those who reported wrongdoing.
What We Do
- Solicit disclosures of waste, fraud, abuse, misconduct, and mismanagement.
- Work to corroborate claims through deep, independent research.
- Help insiders safely and legally inform authorities, the media, and the public.
- Educate whistleblowers, journalists, Members of Congress, inspectors general, and other official institutions charged with strengthening public integrity.
- Advocate for more effective oversight and whistleblower-driven investigations.
The team at Empower Oversight has seen firsthand how transparency provides a vital check on unfettered power. We are committed to finding the facts so that Americans can confront abuses of authority.
Latest Updates
Shielded By Power
When two elite IRS investigators followed the evidence, they ran headfirst into a wall of political obstruction.
Shielded by Power tells the inside story of the Hunter Biden tax investigation through the voices of the whistleblowers who risked everything to expose it. With exclusive interviews and documented proof, this film pulls back the curtain on corruption at the highest levels of government.
Leadership
Coming to Empower from his Senate-confirmed position on the Merit Systems Protection Board, Tristan Leavitt is widely respected for his unrivaled inside knowledge of the federal whistleblower protection process. He has over a decade of experience investigating waste, fraud, abuse, and cronyism in the federal government.
Leavitt began his investigative career working on the Senate Judiciary Committee staff of Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), where he helped whistleblowers expose schemes like Operation Fast and Furious, the gunwalking scandal that armed the murderers of a U.S. Border Patrol Agent. He also served as Senator Grassley’s chief whistleblower policy advisor, leading the introduction of the first Senate resolutions recognizing National Whistleblower Appreciation Day and the establishment of the Senate Whistleblower Protection Caucus.
In 2015 Leavitt joined the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee staff of Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah). There he worked with dozens of whistleblowers from the U.S. Secret Service to break news…Read more
With more than two decades of experience conducting oversight and investigations on Capitol Hill, Jason Foster has represented four different congressional committees in hundreds of disputes with the Executive Branch over access to documents and witnesses in a broad array of contexts over the years.
As Chief Investigative Counsel to then-Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Foster helped whistleblowers expose some of the biggest scandals of the Obama and Trump administrations—including Fast and Furious, the gunwalking scheme that armed the murderers of a U.S. Border Patrol Agent and the partisan funding behind the infamous Steele dossier, which initially remained hidden from the public for 11 months.
During his time working for Senator Grassley, he helped create the Senate’s bipartisan Whistleblower Protection Caucus and pass the FBI Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2016 and the Inspector General Empowerment Act of 2016. He also helped negotiate policy concessions to ensure access to Executive Branch information for all Members of Congress… Read more