Fired Inspector General Says His Lawsuit Was Filed to Protect Future IGs
EmailGerald Walpin, the man who President Obama fired last month as Inspector General of the Corporation for National and Community Service, will issue the following statement this morning, a few days after filing a lawsuit seeking reinstatement to his job.
"I am bringing this lawsuit primarily to protect the system of Inspectors General, which cannot remain viable without insulation from political and other interference," Walpin will say in the statement. "While I also am troubled at the mud-slinging lengths those who sought my removal have gone to attempt, belatedly, to rationalize their actions, the most important objective of this lawsuit is to prevent a successful illegal removal of one Inspector General from being used as a precedent for other similar interferences and the chilling effect that it would have on the willingness of other Inspectors General effectively to perform their job when faced with proceeding against friends of people in high places."
Walpin will continue by quoting Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who wrote: "'It appears [Mr. Walpin] has been doing his job' by 'identif[ying] millions of dollars in AmericCorps funds either wasted outright or spent in violation of established guidelines."
Walpin will say: "I am proud of the work that was done while I was Inspector General and of the diligent and honest work done by my career staff. It was their investigative and audit work which I supported because it was very good, non-political, work for the purpose of safeguarding taxpayers' funds. I was therefore removed because I stood behind and supported my career staff."
You can read more about the case HERE.
– jpt
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With the huge amounts of money being spent on Americorps and other programs, we need tough, aggressive IG’s to try and limit the waste and fraud. Johnson obviously committed fraud in the case Walpin was investigating, otherwise he would not have agreed to a settlement.
Posted by: Jason | July 20, 2009, 8:28 am 8:28 am
And why is Johnson not in jail? I understand he managed to pay back only about half of the fraudulently used funds.
Posted by: Popcorn | July 20, 2009, 9:11 am 9:11 am
Please not to bother The Won
while he is distributing
spoils to his posse. It
Posted by: betheweb | July 20, 2009, 9:36 am 9:36 am
disturbs his digestion.
Posted by: betheweb | July 20, 2009, 9:36 am 9:36 am
Obama is buying votes for 2012. Every HONEST citizen must rise up in PROTEST.
We can’t let him get a second term, and should try to IMPEACH him before then if we can. The IG Scandal is one way.
OBAMA thinks Chicago politicians don’t have to follow the law.
OBAMA IS NOT ABOVE THE LAW.
Posted by: mad-as-H | July 20, 2009, 9:40 am 9:40 am
Walpin wants to tie his firing to Johnson finding. I have not read anything that suggests he was fired because of this situation. I read a bi-partisan oversite Board recommended him being replaced. Obama has two choices, either act on the Boards’ recommendations or not act. Not acting, would suggest the Board was not necessary. Walpin was offered the opportunity to resign, and he refused that offer. Therefore, he was fired. Walpin is sueing to get his job back. Federal employees always believe they have a life-time job.
Posted by: DirtyShame | July 20, 2009, 9:47 am 9:47 am
Still, it’s kind of suspicious that he was fired after bringing to light the corruption of one of Mr. Obama’s friends, and then refused to back down when the bi-partisan board continued to protect the miscreant.
I can just imagine the howls if Mr. Bush had done this.
Posted by: Terry | July 20, 2009, 9:50 am 9:50 am
Bush legally replaces a few federal prosecutors, which is perfectly legitimate as chief executive. That’s his job. But the media warped it into the next Watergate.
Clinton fired ALL the federal prosecutors, and that that is neatly forgotten.
Now this egregious retaliation by a gangster president to protect his criminal friends in high places, and an obvious disgrace at that, is pushed to the backburner of the media consciousness. It should be on every front page until this crook is impeached.
We may have to wait until 2010 for that. How sad that Congress is such a tool for such an empty suit mobster.
Posted by: Korla Pundit | July 20, 2009, 10:00 am 10:00 am
The thing that bothers me is the senile allegation as a rational. I’ve listened closely to Walpin speak and it’s just not true.
Posted by: LongT | July 20, 2009, 10:59 am 10:59 am
Double standard folks.
Posted by: LongT | July 20, 2009, 11:00 am 11:00 am
=== I read a bi-partisan oversite Board recommended him being replaced. ===
Then airing the reasons for his firing, via a lawsuit, should help, not hurt Obama. I suggest Obama encourage the lawsuit.
Posted by: Axey | July 20, 2009, 11:03 am 11:03 am
Not worthy of print.
Posted by: rightbehind | July 20, 2009, 11:24 am 11:24 am
Walpin should be reinstated at once. I expected this kind of crap from Obama.
Posted by: Raymond Dziadzio | July 20, 2009, 11:32 am 11:32 am
Obama followed the law and the firing appears to be reasonable. The government is often mocked for not firing poor employees, yet this is what happens when they do let go an employee who would have been fired years ago in any private sector job.
The facts have come out, and everyone who has bothered to read through all of them (including Republicans on the applicable committee) agrees the action was routine and justified. Well, expect those more concerned with bumpersticker fodder for 2010 than running our government.
Posted by: jhw539 | July 20, 2009, 12:36 pm 12:36 pm
jhw 539….spin baby spin…ask the people of sacramento who kevin johnson bilked. 70k plus 400 plus k by the hospital. why would you fire someone for doing their job unless he was exposing one of your freinds and supporters.slow this machine down so we can see the warts before anymore damage is done to the taxpayers of america.
Posted by: catman | July 20, 2009, 12:54 pm 12:54 pm
Funny, how they only came up with a rationale for firing Walpin after they demanded he resign. As per the Inspector General law, they would be required to have their rationale in place and verified before they began the one-month warning period before they could fire an Inspector General.
Posted by: luagha | July 20, 2009, 1:09 pm 1:09 pm
Naturally there would be some rift between the bipartisan board and the IG that oversee’s their spending/decisions. The board was just protecting themselves after they allowed an absolutely ridiculous settlement in the case of the misused funds by Kevin Johnson. He basically stole the money and used it for his own personal benefit. He used it to supplement salaries of his employees, to pay hood corps members to do his bidding, to send his students to NY to recruit for his school there, he used it to have students campaign for school board members who were favorable to Johnson and also used Americorps funds to pay students to work at his school instead of working in the community. That way, he didn’t have to personally pay them. It’s disgusting and Gerald Walpin knows it. The board knows it, too. They wanted Johnson off the debarment list so Sac could get their stimulus $. Can you imagine a major city not getting stimulus funds because their mayor is barred from receiving them? The govt didn’t want to deal with that so they gave Johnson a gift and got him off the list. Now Sac has the $ and Johnson the thief got away with a slap on the wrist.
Posted by: sactown | July 20, 2009, 3:25 pm 3:25 pm
Now this would normally be hailed as the highest form of patriotism…but somehow I expect it will not be.
A very good, brave, no bs mand this walpin. I look forward to seeing him get his day in court against the thuggish obama regime.
Posted by: dude | July 20, 2009, 5:14 pm 5:14 pm
From another poster:
“Obama has two choices, either act on the Boards’ recommendations or not act. Not acting, would suggest the Board was not necessary. Walpin was offered the opportunity to resign, and he refused that offer. Therefore, he was fired. Walpin is sueing to get his job back. Federal employees always believe they have a life-time job.”
OR he could have followed the law that HE he sponsored that said he must alert congress before trying to fire them. Typical obamatrons.
Posted by: dude | July 20, 2009, 5:16 pm 5:16 pm
I took an interest in the Walpin firing from the beginning and have read and reread just about every background document released to date in this matter. I’ve also researched quite a bit of other material and have come to several preliminary conclusions: 1) Kevin Johnson took more than $800K in grant funds, misused the money, and showed little concern for having been caught – that is until he was suspended/debarred from receiving any more grant funds, including stimulus funds for Sacramento; 2) CNCS/AmeriCorps failed to provide required oversight of the grant and showed little or no concern when the misuse of funds was uncovered; 3) Walpin presented AG Brown with a solid case against Johnson; Brown’s response was tepid at best; 4) Brown mistakenly believed that he had the authority to essentially take the case away from the IG, shut the IG’s investigation down, and handle the matter as he saw fit, or more likely, as he was told to do; 5) Walpin proceeded to do his job and was fired for it; and 6) Brown, CNCS/AmeriCorps, and White House operatives began ‘building the case’ for discrediting Walpin.
Only a bunch of arrogant bureaucrats who think they’re immune from fallout would even try to put a smear like this in place after the fact. This one will come back and bite all of them in the a$$. Gerald Walpin is an ethical and intellectual giant compared to those who oppose him in this matter. They are no match for his 50 years of legal expertise, prosecutorial skills, and good old-fashioned tenacity! Walpin has maintained extensive and detailed documentation of his activities and communications in this matter. And this gaggle of inepts and shadow operatives think they can throw out a few sound bytes and make this up as they go along? What a joke! Are they EVER outmatched! May the subpoenas begin!
Posted by: TXPatriot512 | July 21, 2009, 4:35 am 4:35 am