Friday Night Massacre of the Federal Watchdogs

The Trump White House fired at least 17 inspector generals at in late night emails, affecting independent oversight across the government

washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/… More coverage at the NYT, which has the 17 IGs fired stat

nytimes.com/2025/01/24/us/…

Last week, lawmakers released a report on allegations against DHS Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari. A flurry of news coverage ensued. But, including appendices, 1002 pages were released. Here are some overlooked revelations...



(1/16)oversightdemocrats.house.gov/news/press-rel… The Integrity Committee, which investigates misconduct claims against senior federal watchdog officials, gave up on probing several serious allegations against Cuffari and top aides partly due to their resistance to oversight.

(2/16)documentcloud.org/documents/2518…

This Memorial Day weekend, @POGOwatchdog is revealing a recent Army watchdog report that paints a disturbing picture of its research response to high rates of suicide and sexual assault in its ranks that have plagued the Army for years

pogo.org/investigation/… The Army’s active-duty suicide rate in 2021 was 47% more than the Marine Corps & more than 2x that of the Navy & Air Force. But the Army's oversight of its research into suicide & other harmful behaviors has many long-standing shortcomings

pogo.org/investigation/…

NEW! My investigation for @POGOwatchdog on how mismanagement and distrust within an obscure Capitol Police office enabled one of America’s worst intelligence failures on January 6, 2021

pogo.org/investigation/… I began talking to former Capitol Police intelligence whistleblowers a year ago. I could not corroborate many of their claims then.

But after the Jan 6 select committee made its interview transcripts public earlier this year, that changed.

FBI records show the FBI's top leaders were sent concerning info pointing to the potential for violence DAYS before Jan. 6 - such as the fact that "domestic terrorism suspects" were coming to D.C. for the Stop the Steal rally

documentcloud.org/documents/2358… FBI Director Wray's special exec. assistant & the FBI's #2 were emailed on Jan 3 that the Proud Boys "are coming for violence. They will cause mass unrest, destruction, and potentially kill many people in the streets of DC on January 6th.'"

documentcloud.org/documents/2358…

FBI agents who have led counterterrorism and counterintelligence efforts in recent years in the FBI's powerful and immensely important New York Field Office have had serious problems

Charges were unsealed today against Charles F. McGonigal

justice.gov/opa/press-rele… A 2017 Justice Dept inspector general report found Bryan Paarmann, then-special-agent-in-charge of counterterrorism in the FBI's NY Field Office, “improperly disclosed court-sealed and law enforcement sensitive information to the media"

scribd.com/document/44241…

Even though this official resigned in October for alleged sexual misconduct, he is reportedly "under investigation for his behavior by Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Professional Responsibility"

nbcnews.com/politics/immig… Last April, @POGOwatchdog exposed the broken system of accountability - including at Customs and Border Protection - when DHS employees engage in sexual misconduct

pogo.org/investigation/…

"More than 300 individuals on a leaked membership list of the far-right militia group the Oath Keepers described themselves as current or former employees of the Department of Homeland Security" - @POGOwatchdog reports
pogo.org/investigation/… “This probably represents that the tip of the iceberg as far as federal law enforcement officers that have been involved in or supported the activities of far-right, militant groups like the Oath Keepers” fmr FBI agent Mike German (@RethinkIntel) told @POGOwatchdog

I haven't seen an immediate impact like this from a congressional investigation in a long time

SBA suspended fintech lender support companies that were big players in the PPP & is investigating some of the major lenders that partnered w/ them Here's the full @SBAgov press release:

globenewswire.com/en/news-releas…

1/ 🧵EXCLUSIVE: Thru a #FOIA lawsuit, @POGOwatchdog got data on 2.3 million #PPP loans that the Small Business Administration flagged for scrutiny, incl potential fraud

But the SBA botched its review of billions of dollars of flagged loans

pogo.org/investigation/… 2/ There were some 4.3 million flags that SBA applied to these 2.3 million #PPP loans from August 2020 to Sept 2021 worth at least $189 billion. The flags were meant to help SBA assess whether a recipient should receive loan forgiveness

This will be a LONG 🧵

Late yesterday and this morning, 2 big stories broke on Homeland Security watchdog Joe Cuffari

1 is a @POGOwatchdog investigation that & the other is by @Reinlwapo at the Washington Post (I co-authored the 1st & am quoted in Lisa's story) What's significant in @POGOwatchdog's story is DHS watchdog Cuffari not only failed to tell Congress months earlier about the deleted Secret Service texts, but his leadership rejected an alert that his office's attorneys approved on April 1

pogo.org/investigation/…

The Washington Post's @Reinlwapo @CarolLeonnig & @mariasacchetti have a crazy scoop on an investigation into the Homeland Security watchdog Joe Cuffari's last job as a federal employee

washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/… Here's the full report!!

READING TIME! 👀👀👀👀

documentcloud.org/documents/2212…

Key questions: Were the Secret Service texts related to Jan 6 deleted permanently or not? Were they provided to the Homeland Security Inspector General or not?

On the left, the Secret Service statement defending itself & on the right, the IG's accusations Either the Secret Service texts were permanently erased, or they weren't

The inspector general wrote the Secret Service "erased those text messages"

The Secret Service says it told the IG "none of the texts it was seeking had been lost in the migration"

The Dept. of Homeland Security Inspector General Joe Cuffari says in his written response to Congress that he's thinking about dropping a report that found that more than 10,000 DHS employees said they experienced sexual misconduct

https://twitter.com/DHSOIG/status/1526994113425510405

.@DHSOIG Joe Cuffari: "I am considering closing the review without issuing a report"

His office has spent more than 4 years working on this report. He has been in charge for nearly 3 of those years.