As a whistleblower lawyer, I would weigh the benefits and costs of recommending to clients that they attend this committee while David Buckley serves as the staff director. Kel McClanahan, Kel McClanahan's national security whistleblowers lawyer, stated in an interview. Particularly if the clients are not protected by strong whistleblower protections like Capitol Police and Intelligence Community employees.Buckley's past has already made its way into Jan. 6 investigation. Andrew Bakaj (a former CIA IG Office employee who was also connected to the Hooters probe) is now a prominent whistleblower lawyer who represented two law enforcement officers who testified before the panel. Dramatic subplot was created by the years-old dispute between these two men.The whistleblower advocates are urging Buckley's select panel to succeed him, but there is no indication that the House Democrats are looking into it or are losing confidence in him.David Buckley served the country for over 30 years. He has helped to defend democracy and American security, and he will continue to do so as a Select Committees staff member, Tim Mulvey, a spokesperson of Democrats on Jan. 6, said via email. He knows as well as anyone how important whistleblowers are in providing information to keep us safe, and our government accountable.Mulvey said, "The years-old situation conveniently resurfacing now covered possibly unlawful handling information that could have jeopardized an CIA IG's most important and sensitive investigation in recent years." While Mr. Buckley did his best to preserve the integrity of the effort, a federal court ruled that the exact type of action he took was not retaliation.Bakajs case was not included in the court's ruling. He has not been ambiguous. He tweeted about the select committee this week, saying that there can't be credibility without integrity.While the Jan.6 investigation was branded partisan by the House Republicans, they don't seem interested in making Buckley a political liability to the committee.Mark Zaid, a national-security lawyer who represented Bakaj, and has also worked with him to represent whistleblowers, stated that the Committee's defense of Buckley was troubling. Bakaj and Zaid represented the whistleblower that triggered Trump's first impeachment. Zaid stated that he would not hesitate to bring other whistleblowers to the committee.Zaid stated that Buckley's defense by the Committee is embarrassing. He said that Democrats' support for the whistleblower at the IC, Andrew and I were representing, was a partisan move to get Trump. The whistleblower is apparently made to pay if the whistleblower's issue conflicts with their political agenda. This is why the Committee continues to pursue illegal reprisals against Andrew.Hunting trips and hootersAccording to a whistleblower complaint filed 2011, the Buckley-Bakaj conflict's origins began in 2007 when sales representatives from multiple government contracting companies were lavishing perks upon CIA officials.Among the gifts that CIA officials received were tickets for baseball games, VIP access at NASCAR races and hunting trips, as well as dinners. One CIA official was so fond of Hooters, a contracting company gave him a name for one of his products: the HTRS cable tray.The scheme was a disaster for both the contractors and CIA officers involved. A whistleblower filed a lawsuit exposing the kickback allegations. The case of the whistleblower was convincing enough to get the companies to settle for $3 million.Buckley, at the time the top CIA watchdog, spoke out about the office's work in a press release, vowing that his office would partner with the Justice Department in order to address illegal acts in an effective way.It was not as efficient as it could have.A case against a criminalThe U.S. attorney's office in Eastern District of Virginia worked hard to bring criminal charges for the scheme. The CIA Inspector Generals Office also collected evidence and shared it with prosecutors.Four people familiar with the matter claim that some of these materials were not handled properly. POLITICO reviewed a document that listed the concerns regarding the evidence. It was used as the basis of a briefing to Congress. The document stated that whistleblowers believed there were inconsistent witness interviews and a falsified signature from a person who wasn't even working in the office at that time.According to multiple sources familiar with the investigation, federal prosecutors worked with the CIA IGs to persuade one person involved in the scandal to plead guilty. Multiple officials at the IGs office were alarmed by this and decided to speak out about their concerns regarding evidence.Bakaj, a fellow whistleblower at the CIA, helped them to raise their concerns to the Intelligence Community inspector Generals office. They also informed DOJ, the House and Senate intelligence committees.People familiar with the matter say that the guilty plea was dropped after Eastern District of Virginia prosecutors learned of the alleged mishandling of evidence. Although the kickback scheme described in the complaint caused a lot of legal problems, there are no court records that show that any of those named were ever charged with similar crimes. According to POLITICO's inspector general review, the investigation was closed by the office in February 2014.Two more IGs get involvedThe scandal sparked turmoil within the CIA IGs office. They couldn't investigate their own mistakes to find out. Buckley's deputy requested former colleagues from the Federal Housing Finance Agencys inspector General to review the whistleblower claims.According to POLITICO, the review found no deliberate attempts to distort evidence. It did however identify multiple issues in managing evidence. The review also revealed that a top officer in the office had not been trained on how to store and handle evidence. According to the report, one federal prosecutor who worked with the CIA IGs offices stated that she believed that a second person was instructed to sign off on reports she hadn't written. However, the second person told FHFA IG officers that she was only required to sign reports she had written.Fears grew in the CIA watchdog, where some believed it was an attempt to identify whistleblowers. One former CIA IG employee claims that top officials entered interviews with their employees to deepen the concerns.Bakaj told Intelligence Community inspector-generals that he believed Buckley had chosen him for his role in helping whistleblowers complain about the mishandling evidence.A review by yet another inspector generals (this time the Department of Homeland Security), revealed that Buckley placed Bakaj on administrative leave in retaliation. DHS watcheddog found that Buckley and other top CIA IGs officers wrongly punished Bakaj (the specific appropriate activity was communication Bakaj had made with an Intelligence Community Inspector Generals Office official on a topic not connected to the Hooters-related matter).David Buckley didn't respond to requests for comment. Howard Cox, a senior Buckleys official at the time of Bakaj's probe, reacted to the DHS report. He claimed it contained a gross misapplication.Cox stated that Bakaj was not properly investigated in the report. This was because the CIA OIG had a valid reason to investigate Bakaj to determine if he improperly accessed classified files related to a criminal investigation for the purpose to leak them to an unauthorized person.Cox, who is now retired from the CIA added that CIA IG leaders suspected Bakaj of trying to leak material related to the offices probe into the CIA rendition program. This complex and high-stakes investigation examined one of the most egregious episodes in U.S. Intelligence Community history.Bakaj said that the DHS OIG report refers to Cox as one among several senior managers who retaliated against Bakaj. Bakaj is mentioned in the report as one of many officials who retaliated against him, but their names are redacted. Bakaj stated that he had reviewed the unredacted report. Bakaj also stated that he had recently been granted a TS/SCI security clearance. This supports the conclusion of DHS IG that he didn't mishandle classified material.A Jan. 6 investigation disrupted?Even though it's complicated, the CIA kickback scandal might make it more difficult for select committees to investigate the Capitol riot. Bakaj, who left the CIA in 2000, has been involved with numerous congressional whistleblowers, including the person, still anonymous, whose account about a phone call with the Ukrainian president triggered the first impeachment of Trump.Many factors play a role in government corruption investigations. This dynamic will be important for both the witnesses and investigators on the committees, as well for the many lawyers who manage the complicated interactions between them.Advocates have called for Buckley's ouster because of the tension surrounding his leadership. The Project on Government Oversight, a prominent nonpartisan watchdog group for government, joined Bakaj and Zaid to urge Buckley's replacement. These concerns were detailed by Danielle Brian, POGO's executive director.David Buckley's leadership and skill as an inspector general was something I had once admired. But, revelations about how he treated whistleblowers were too disturbing to ignore, she wrote.Nicholas Wu contributed to the report.
