An investigation from House Judiciary Democrats concluded the Justice Department has approved more than 3 million dollars in payments to fired FBI agents, accusing the Trump administration of “improperly shower[ing] government cash” on employees who were dismissed after alarming conduct.
“You have now proceeded behind closed doors to order the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to pay millions of dollars to former FBI agents who were suspended, fired, and had their clearances revoked for criminal activity, major breaches of national security, or violations of the standards of conduct and professionalism required of law enforcement agents. All of these handouts constitute an astounding and lawless abuse of government office and taxpayer dollars,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the panel, wrote to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
“Political appointees from your office, as well as staffers to Sen. [Chuck] Grassley, have personally involved themselves in making these dumbfounding funding decisions.”
Though figures disclosed in the letter show payments totaling over 630,000, “the Committee has received information demonstrating that the FBI paid more than 3 million dollars to the agents in question,” a spokeswoman said.
The letter was sent shortly before FBI Director Kash Patel is set to testify before Senate appropriators about the bureau’s budget.
The Justice Department and the FBI did not respond to request for comment.
Raskin also questioned the Justice Department’s dealings with Empower Oversight, the nonprofit representing many of the former agents that offers legal advice to whistleblowers.
The letter says the agents were not fired for their political leanings as some have claimed but rather a series of inappropriate actions.
One agent, the letter states, was fired for failing to participate in an investigation into the white nationalist group Patriot Front, claiming the probe was politically motivated. That same agent was also found to have “engaged in commercial sex overseas” while on an FBI assignment, something the letter called “unequivocal grounds for security clearance revocation and dismissal from the FBI.”
Empower Oversight denies the client engaged in commercial sex and said he pushed back on weaknesses in a warrant to gain information on Patriot Front which failed to include exculpatory evidence, fearing the bureau was planning to present a misleading case and improperly secure judicial backing.
Raskin also pointed to another agent who entered the restricted area around the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, saying he later misled investigators about his actions. The Justice Department agreed to a lump sum payment of $63,500 over the matter. Those statements, Raskin said, are a “dismissible offense.”
Empower Oversight said the client was unaware he was entering a restricted area and left before the scene turned violent. A DOJ Office of Inspector General report found the client “did not lack candor” and passed a polygraph about the matter when asked if he knew he was entering a prohibited area.
The letter also details a third agent was awarded $15,000 after he resigned from the FBI after his clearance was suspended after he was accused of communicating classified information to reporters about Chinese intelligence activities.
In that case, Empower Oversight said the client did not leak information to a reporter as suspected and may have faced pushback from the bureau both for declining the COVID vaccine and for raising concerns with superiors about what he saw as disparities between how the bureau was handling matters involving Democrats and Republicans.
Raskin’s letter, however, said an FBI review “determined Agent 1 likely communicated classified information to reporters about Chinese intelligence activities.”
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“Each of these agents was disciplined for egregious misconduct. Empower Oversight claims their press release about these settlements was ‘transparent.’ It was not. It was grossly misleading about their clients’ misconduct,” Raskin said in a later Tuesday statement.
The ranking member also disputed in his letter that any of the agents would be considered whistleblowers under the law.
“The record definitively shows that the agents were not disciplined for making protected disclosures to Congress or for the imaginary offense of being a Republican. They were disciplined for reckless misuse of classified information or serious episodes of professional misconduct that endangered national security. It is black-letter law that even employees who have made protected disclosures remain accountable for other wrongdoing, a critical point that DOJ has ignored in your haste to promote falsified claims of conservative victimhood,” he wrote.
“While Empower Oversight has brazenly described these scofflaws as ‘whistleblowers’ in press releases, none of them was ever disciplined for engaging in any purported ‘whistleblowing.’ They were disciplined for serious professional misconduct. Sleeping with sex workers, lying to government investigators, and refusing to investigate violent white nationalist groups are not ‘whistleblower’ activities.”
Empower Oversight disputed Raskin’s characterization of their clients, noting the agent who had their clearance suspended later had it reinstated.
“This letter is more a toddler’s temper tantrum than serious congressional oversight. It’s filled with shameless lies about our clients that would get him sued if he wasn’t protected by the Constitution’s Speech or Debate privilege,” Tristan Leavitt, the group’s president, said in a statement.
“It is common practice for federal agencies to settle legal or administrative complaints against them, which (as Empower Oversight made public on March 19, 2025) virtually all of the whistleblowers had against the FBI at the time of the settlements,” he said, adding that two clients were “retaliated against for exposing the FBI’s use of the security clearance process for reprisal against other Empower Oversight clients.”
The letter also focuses on Grassley’s role in the process, noting that current staffers “have actually participated in the ‘settlement’ communications.”
In August, Grassleynoted his involvement, describing himself as mediating negotiations between DOJ and some of Empower Oversight’s clients.
“This seven-page screed is a disgusting and defamatory attempt to smear legitimate whistleblowers while protecting their Biden administration retaliators. Senator Grassley stands by his efforts to defend and protect all whistleblowers, no matter which administration they blow the whistle on, just as he has done for decades,” Clare Slattery, a spokeswoman for Grassley, said in a statement.
The Justice Department has made other notable settlements during the Trump administration, recently agreeing to pay Michael Flynn, Trump’s national security advisor during his first term,$1.25 milliondespite his initially pleading guilty to lying to the FBI.
And former Trump campaign staffer Carter Page got a settlement of the same amount last month, with the Justice Department sidestepping Page’s claim he was unlawfully spied upon.
Page’s lawsuit came after a 2019 DOJ inspector general report found that the FBI was justified in investigating possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia but that “serious performance failures” plagued the bureau’s chain of command.
Updated at 9:35 p.m. EDT
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An investigation from House Judiciary Democrats concluded the Justice Department has approved more than 3 million dollars in payments t...
