Ernst, Grassley Refer ATF Bureaucrats Who Defrauded Taxpayers for Prosecution
Biden administration knowingly looked the other way while ATF employees defrauded taxpayers to pad their salaries.
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) requested that the Trump administration take immediate action to correct sweeping culture problems within the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) after a pair of bureaucrats defrauded taxpayers of millions of dollars by illegally misclassifying administrative positions as “law enforcement.”
After the Biden administration knowingly looked the other way for years, the senators referred the pair to the Department of Justice for prosecution because federal employees are not above the law and stealing tax dollars is a crime.
“We raised concerns because as a result of ATF’s illegal conduct, ATF staff assigned to these positions performed administrative work but unlawfully received enhanced law enforcement pay and benefits to which they were not entitled, wasting millions of taxpayer dollars,” wrote the senators. “We also asked whether the Biden DOJ held ATF leadership accountable for allowing the illegal misclassification scheme to continue after becoming aware of it and for retaliating against whistleblowers. Despite the Biden ATF and DOJ stonewalling our efforts by failing to respond, our offices obtained copies of these reports via legally protected whistleblower disclosures.”
Click here to view the full letter.
Background:
In May 2023, Ernst exposed the ATF’s routine misclassification of administrative positions as law enforcement jobs, improperly costing the federal agency millions in pay and enhanced benefits over a five-year span.
In January 2024, she followed up and called for accountability and a full review of the ATF’s unlawful misclassification of administrative positions as “law enforcement” that wasted millions of taxpayer dollars.
Despite the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and ATF Internal Affairs Division (IAD) confirming the potential criminal misconduct, the Biden administration promoted both bureaucrats. According to whistleblower disclosures, the pair remain employed at the Department of Justice (DOJ).
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