According to a stomach-churning new report from Bloomberg today, high-ranking leadership officials within the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have now launched an all-out, threat-filled pressure campaign against lower-level FEMA staffers to rat out their colleagues who have anonymously criticized President Trump. Should they choose not to reveal those names to agency leadership, they should expect termination from their positions.
Back in August, nearly 200 FEMA employees signed on to a letter, in which they openly criticized the Trump Administration’s massive cuts to the agency that is responsible for the federal government’s response to emergencies and disasters. In the letter, FEMA employees asserted that Trump’s careless cuts would severely and negatively affect the agency’s ability to respond to disasters across the nation in a timely or adequate manner.
Immediately following the release of the open letter to the Trump Administration, more than a dozen FEMA employees — all of whom had signed the declaration in support — were placed on leave. Those who remained but signed the letter with their names were immediately placed under investigation by agency leadership. According to inside sources who spoke with Bloomberg, as well as agency documents, they were told, in no uncertain terms, that they would reveal the names of any colleagues who had anonymously signed onto the document in support, or they would be fired.
Bloomberg reports, “The interviews with FEMA workers have been carried out by the agency’s division that investigates employee misconduct, and those interviewed have been told they risk being fired for failure to cooperate. The employees have been instructed not to bring counsel, according to people familiar with the process.”
Read that again if you need to. They were not even allowed access to legal counsel.
This revelation came, in large part, from Colette Delawalla, the founder of the nonprofit organization Stand Up for Science — the very same organization that worked hand-in-hand with FEMA staffers to organize and publish their public letter of dissent from the president.
Speaking with Bloomberg on the matter, Delawalla said, “They are not really given an option not to comply. They don’t have guidance while they’re in there.”
Despite the fact that FEMA was already struggling to properly respond to disasters, such as the massive flooding in Texas, thanks to Trump Admin policies that led to a funding lapse for the agency, Trump has already made it publicly clear that his goal is to phase FEMA out entirely, and instead “bring it down to the state level.”
Back in July, a total of 140 FEMA employees were placed on leave in direct connection to their involvement with a different letter of dissent. That letter resulted in countless FEMA employees being forcibly reassigned to work for Immigration Customs and Enforcement amid Donald Trump’s massive war on immigrants in the US.
Critics have already begun to slam FEMA leadership actions as a direct and blatant violation of the Whistleblower Protection Act, a law that provides clear-cut protections against retaliation for government employees who disclose inside information that is a “specific danger to public health or safety.”
Find the full report from Bloomberg here.
Featured image via The Resistance Report Gallery