U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, each Iowa Republicans, are leveling critical allegations about “gross and substantial waste, fraud and abuse, in addition to probably legal false certification of presidency data and whistleblower retaliation” by two senior officers on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and they’re demanding “speedy corrective motion.”
In a Monday, Could 12 assertion, the 2 Hawkeye State senators leveled their allegations in opposition to ATF Senior Government Lisa Boykin and Justice Administration Division (JMD) Performing Deputy Director of Human Sources (HR) Ralph Bittelari.
In a 5 ½-page letter to Legal professional Common Pam Bondi, Performing ATF Director Daniel Driscoll and Assistant Legal professional Common Jolene Ann Lauria, who heads the Justice Division’s Administration Justice Administration Division, Grassley and Ernst element their allegations. Recalling their earlier letters to the Biden administration in January and September 2024—by which they complained about ATF’s allegedly “unlawful scheme to misclassify human assets (HR) and different administrative positions as regulation enforcement, which was substantiated by the Workplace of Particular Counsel”—now the senators need motion beneath the brand new administration.
“In our earlier letters,” Grassley and Ernst wrote Could 9, “we requested the businesses present us with the ATF Inner Affairs Division (IAD) report and the Workplace of Personnel Administration (OPM) Human Capital Administration Analysis (HCME) audit report. Whistleblowers knowledgeable us that these reviews extensively detailed ATF management’s involvement within the unlawful misclassification scheme even after being notified in regards to the misconduct and OPM suspended ATF’s classification authority after finishing their audit. We additionally requested whether or not the Biden DOJ held ATF management accountable for permitting the unlawful misclassification scheme to proceed after turning into conscious of it and for retaliating in opposition to whistleblowers. Regardless of the Biden ATF and DOJ stonewalling our efforts by failing to reply, our workplaces obtained copies of those reviews through legally protected whistleblower disclosures. That’s the reason we’re writing to you at this time to convey this example to your consideration. As this letter will clarify, we strongly imagine the knowledge contained in these reviews and the opposite data we’ve made public are alarming and necessitate speedy corrective motion.”
In his joint press launch with Ernst, Sen. Grassley said, “The Biden administration’s ATF illegally lined staff’ pockets with tens-of-millions of taxpayer {dollars}. These Washington bureaucrats should reply for his or her misconduct, and if heads don’t roll, nothing will change. With out the continued persistence of courageous whistleblowers, ATF’s unlawful scheme would’ve seemingly continued. As at all times, sunshine is one of the best disinfectant. Legal professional Common Pam Bondi ought to take robust motion to carry these Biden-era pencil pushers accountable and finish the fraudulent waste at ATF.”
Earlier this 12 months, Republican Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert and Congressman Eric Burlison of Missouri, launched H.R. 129, often called the “Abolish the ATF Act.” The laws is co-sponsored by Reps. Andy Biggs (AZ-05), Mike Collins (GA-10), Bob Onder (MO-03), Andy Ogles (TN-05), Mary Miller (IL-15), Keith Self (TX-03), and Paul Gosar (AZ-09). It was assigned to the Home Judiciary Committee.
“The IAD report was accomplished on January 5, 2024,” the Grassley-Ernst letter notes, “and it highlights appreciable proof of gross waste, fraud, and abuse; substantial misconduct and mismanagement; abuse of energy; and potential legal misconduct…”
Later of their letter, Grassley and Ernst discuss with an audit report from the Workplace of Personnel Administration which, they are saying, “highlighted that the ATF’s unlawful misclassification scheme hampered the company’s capability to hold out its regulation enforcement mission.”
The letter goes on to claim, “the OPM audit discovered that roughly one third of all staff assigned to ATF HRPD, a couple of 100, have been ATF regulation enforcement officers. That means, the ATF relocated 100 of its regulation enforcement officers from defending our communities from ‘violent criminals, legal organizations, the unlawful use and trafficking of firearms, the unlawful use and storage of explosives, acts of arson and bombings, acts of terrorism, and the unlawful diversion of alcohol and tobacco merchandise,’ to administrative positions in ATF HQ, all whereas unlawfully paying them enhanced regulation enforcement advantages on the expense of taxpayers.”
“OPM estimated that ATF’s unlawful scheme price taxpayers round $20 million throughout the five-year interval they reviewed, a quantity the whistleblowers say is considerably understated,” the senators wrote.
Throughout his lengthy profession on Capitol Hill, which included a probe into “Operation Quick and Livid,” the Obama administration scandal which concerned ATF’s “gun strolling” scheme that allowed greater than 2,000 weapons to be illegally trafficked into Mexico, and ended solely when Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in a gun battle by which two of the weapons have been recovered on the crime scene in December 2010.
Sen. Grassley constructed a fame for doggedly pursuing authorities waste. Sen. Ernst seems to be following in his footsteps. Of their letter to Bondi, Driscoll and Lauria, the senators assert whistleblowers have been “subjected to retaliation by being demoted, not returned to their prior place and have confronted repeated makes an attempt by ATF and JMD administration to discredit their reputations and damage their careers.”
They’ve requested Bondi and her colleagues to reply “No later than Could 23.” Additionally they wish to know “the technique the Justice Division will absorb addressing the problems raised on this letter, in addition to solutions to our January 30, 2024 and September 23, 2024 letters.”
The ATF has been beneath political hearth for a number of years, and throughout the Biden administration, there have been complaints that the company had been “weaponized” in opposition to firearms retailers and particular person gun collectors and house owners—particularly individuals in gun exhibits—whereas harmful legal exercise was missed. Maybe now, beneath intense scrutiny, motion might eventually be forthcoming.
RELATED:
About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, creator of a number of books on the Proper to Preserve & Bear Arms, and previously an NRA-certified firearms teacher.
