House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa’s investigation into Obama political appointees’ interference in FOIA requests has just gotten a lot more interesting, the Associated Press reports:
The Department of Homeland Security demoted a senior career employee who confidentially complained to the agency’s internal watchdog that political appointees were improperly interfering with requests for federal records by journalists and others.
The chairman of the House committee investigating those practices told the Obama administration that the decision “appeared to be an act of retaliation.”
“Obstructing a congressional investigation is a crime,” said GOP Rep. Darrell Issa of California, who leads the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The department said it had done nothing wrong.
DHS argues that it has not technically demoted the whistle-blower, Catherine Papoi, because she did not get a pay cut — she simply lost her job title and office and was stripped of her responsibilities.
So, would President Obama please explain again what he was saying about how it’s such a bad thing to denigrate government employees? Was that just him kowtowing to the unions, or does he actually care about government employees like Ms. Papoi?
