FBI settles for retaliating against 8 whistleblowers who exposed bureau corruption

The FBI has signed settlement agreements with Garret O’Boyle, Steve Friend, and six other FBI whistleblowers that will provide them with back pay, lump-sum damage payments, restoration of their security clearances, and, in some of the cases, reinstatement to jobs with the bureau.

O’Boyle and Friend were among eight remaining whistleblowers whose settlements were announced Tuesday by Empower Oversight, which represented the current and former FBI employees in their retaliation cases. Two other settlements were previously announced on Aug. 1 and in 2024 under the Biden administration.

‘This settlement closes a painful chapter for my family and me.’

“Whistleblowers risk it all for the sake of simply telling the truth. These 10 whistleblowers’ brave actions were met with intense bureaucratic blowback that caused severe financial and emotional hardship,” said U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who helped mediate between the FBI and the whistleblowers.

“Their lives were upended for years, but I never stopped fighting until things were made right,” Grassley said.

The whistleblower saga has been a black eye for the FBI. Many expected the cases to be resolved quickly after the election of President Donald J. Trump. FBI Director Kash Patel has come under increasing fire for not getting agreements in place sooner to bring justice for the aggrieved whistleblowers.

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Former Special Agent Steve Friend was a member of the Omaha FBI SWAT team and investigated human trafficking cases.Photo courtesy of Steve Friend

Four of the eight whistleblowers will voluntarily retire as part of the agreement package. Three — O’Boyle, Friend, and Zachery Schoffstall — will be reinstated at the FBI. One other remained at the FBI during her case.

“I am grateful to finally see a measure of resolution in my case,” O’Boyle told Blaze News in a statement. “This settlement closes a painful chapter for my family and me, but it does not erase the years of retaliation, reputational harm, and financial hardship that we endured simply because I told the truth.”

Tuesday marked day 1,065 of O’Boyle’s unpaid suspension that will come to a close with his reinstatement.

‘The work to combat weaponization and whistleblower retaliation is far from over.’

Friend said he also “signed the deal,” some 20 months after he resigned from the bureau just before giving sworn whistleblower testimony to the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary. He said the victory will not mean much if the FBI continues its punishment of whistleblowers.

“While this reinstatement is a vindication about the retaliation I experienced, the victory will ring hollow if the FBI engages in similar retribution against future whistleblowers,” Friend told Blaze News in a statement. “I pray we see the necessary changes to ensure justice for anyone willing to come forward with reasonable concerns about the agency.” The news of settlements is huge vindication for the FBI whistleblowers, all of whom faced varying types and degrees of retribution for making legally protected disclosures.

Friend refused to take part in an FBI SWAT raid at the home of a misdemeanor Jan. 6 suspect, saying the heavy use of force wasn’t justified in the case. O’Boyle made disclosures on COVID-19 shots and policies, the establishment of a tag for investigating parents who attend local school board meetings, and nearly two dozen other issues.

Blaze News has reached out to the FBI for comment.

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FBI whistleblowers Garret O’Boyle, Steve Friend, and Marcus Allen testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in May 2023.Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

Monica Shillingburg, who now works at the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services, reported potentially illegal restructuring being carried out at the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. She was removed and reassigned for reporting her concerns.

Michael Zummer, a former special agent, lost his security clearance after he reported potential prosecutorial misconduct in public corruption cases in New Orleans.

“For each of these cases where whistleblowers finally received at least some measure of justice for the retaliation they faced just for telling the truth about wrongdoing, there are many more who still need a remedy,” wrote Tristan Leavitt and Jason Foster, president and founder of Empower Oversight, in a letter to Grassley.

“There are more who still have no remedy and no justice,” the men wrote. “The work to combat weaponization and whistleblower retaliation is far from over.”

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