Tag

#whistleblower

Individuals who report government wrongdoing, waste, or abuse. Incidents involve retaliation against whistleblowers, dismantlement of whistleblower protections, and the silencing of those who expose violations.

2 incidents

Grade 2 of 5: Major Abuse of Power

DOGE Employees Matched Social Security Data with Voter Rolls to Pursue Voter Fraud Claims

DOGE employees at SSA secretly worked with a political advocacy group to match Social Security data with voter rolls to find 'evidence of voter fraud and to overturn election results.' A signed data-sharing agreement and Hatch Act referrals followed. A whistleblower alleged DOGE copied 300+ million Americans' records into an unsecured virtual database.

Grade 1 of 5: Significant Democratic Concern

Ben Carson HUD Furniture: $31,000 Dining Set Ordered Above the $5,000 Limit, Then Cancelled

The $31,561 dining set — table, chairs, and hutch — was ordered in September 2017 for Carson's HUD suite. A career HUD employee, Helen Foster, filed a complaint alleging she was reassigned after she raised concerns about the legality of the purchase. Foster said she was told by HUD leadership that the order would go forward and that 'someone' had ordered it who outranked her. After the purchase became public in February 2018, Carson and his wife initially disputed involvement; email communications later showed that Carson and his wife had selected the set, and Carson testified in March 2018 that he had 'left it to my wife, you know, to choose something.' The order was cancelled. The HUD inspector general's September 2019 report cleared Carson of misconduct.