Top Democrats call for resignation of Homeland Security internal watchdog
Source: Reuters
October 3, 2024 7:07 PM EDT Updated 12 hours ago
WASHINGTON, Oct 3 (Reuters) - Two top Democrats in the U.S. Congress called for the internal watchdog of the Department of Homeland Security to resign on Thursday, after the release of a nonpartisan report alleging repeated misconduct and obstruction.
DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari's conduct was "evidence that he has seriously compromised the public's trust and is plainly not fit to serve in a position that requires him to guard the public interest and act beyond reproach," Representative Jamie Raskin, top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, and Representative Bennie Thompson, the senior Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said in a joint statement.
A report released by the independent Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency said that Cuffari, appointed by Republican President Donald Trump in 2019, lied to Congress about previous investigations into his misconduct, and said he wasted $1.4 million of taxpayer dollars on investigations of former senior staff in personal retaliation suits.
In response to the report, House Oversight Chairman James Comer, a Republican, attacked the council, known by the acronym CIGIE, saying lawmakers "have raised serious concerns with the length of time CIGIE has spent investigating this matter and questions remain regarding due process safeguards."
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/top-democrats-call-resignation-homeland-security-internal-watchdog-2024-10-03/
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No, ANOTHER GUY was "in charge of the Secret Service" when that phone wipe thing happened (appointed by 45 in 2019) -
James M. Murray
This was who WAS in charge of the SS until forced to step down (there is an Acting in right now - Ronald L. Rowe Jr.)
Kimberly Cheatle
DOJ has NOTHING to do with DHS, which is who the Secret Service is under, and which is run and managed by a guy that the GOP tried to impeach -
Alejandro Mayorkas
But at the time of the SS phone wipes, this guy, who was illegally appointed, was in charge of DHS (again, who the SS is under) -
Chad Wolf
And in the case of this OP, the OIG guy referenced Joseph Cuffari, is part of an "independent" group of "Inspector Generals" that exist across the federal government, who carry out some kind of oversight over their designated Departments/agencies, including DHS.
Joseph Cuffari
Does Cuffari need to go? OH HELL YES. But that is something Biden needs to do.
As Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security, Joseph V. Cuffari apparently orchestrated cover-ups of conspiracies to interfere with the election of 2020 and to overthrow the Constitution:
Homeland Security watchdog halted plan to recover Secret Service texts, records show
By Maria Sacchetti and Carol D. Leonnig
The Washington Post, July 29, 2022
The Department of Homeland Security’s chief watchdog scrapped its investigative team’s effort to collect agency phones to try to recover deleted Secret Service texts this year, according to four people with knowledge of the decision and internal records reviewed by The Washington Post.
In early February, after learning that the Secret Service’s text messages had been erased as part of a migration to new devices, staff at Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari’s office planned to contact all DHS agencies offering to have data specialists help retrieve messages from their phones, according to two government whistleblowers who provided reports to Congress.
But later that month, Cuffari’s office decided it would not collect or review any agency phones, according to three people briefed on the decision.
Snip…
A senior forensics analyst in the inspector general’s office took steps to collect the Federal Protective Service phones, the people said. But late on the night of Friday, Feb. 18, one of several deputies who report to Cuffari’s management team wrote an email to investigators instructing them not to take the phones and not to seek any data from them, according to a copy of an internal record that was shared with The Post.
Staff investigators also drafted a letter in late January and early February to all DHS agencies offering to help recover any text messages or other data that might have been lost. But Cuffari’s management team later changed that draft to say that if agencies could not retrieve phone messages for the Jan. 6 period, they “should provide a detailed list of unavailable data and the reason the information is unavailable,” the three people said.
Continues…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/07/29/homeland-inspector-general-texts/
The guy lied about his qualifications — and it was public knowledge in May, 2020:
The DHS Inspector General Claimed to Have a Philosophy PhD. He Doesn’t.
As Trump fires agency watchdogs, one of his most important appointees has exaggerated his credentials.
by Noah Lanard
Mother Jones, May 29, 2020
The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general wants you to know he has the credentials to hold accountable a 240,000-person department responsible for keeping the country safe. Until Thursday, Joseph Cuffari’s official government bio stated, “Dr. Cuffari earned a Ph.D. in philosophy.”
That isn’t true.
Cuffari’s PhD from California Coast University is in management, and it was conferred by a school that was unaccredited at the time. In 2004, two years after Cuffari received the degree, the Government Accountability Office prominently featured California Coast University in a report on unaccredited “diploma mills” that required no classroom instruction and issued degrees for low flat fees.
Despite all this, Cuffari has regularly signed letters to Congress and the head of DHS as “Joseph V. Cuffari, Ph.D.”
Source: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/05/the-dhs-inspector-general-claimed-to-have-a-philosophy-phd-he-doesnt/
The guy was too shady for at least one important whistleblower:
Ex-DHS Aide Suggests She 'Went Very Public' Because She Didn't Trust Inspector General
Marco Margaritoff
Huffington Post, July 30, 2022
Olivia Troye served as a homeland and counterterrorism adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence. (Photo: Susan Walsh via AP)
Olivia Troye, a former Department of Homeland Security and counterterrorism adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence, said Friday there’s a reason she “went very public” about quitting her job in 2020 ― and suggested current investigations into the missing Secret Service text messages involve the same person.
Troye appeared on CNN as part of a panel alongside former CIA agent Phil Mudd and government ethics expert Norm Eisen when she made these claims. News anchor Jim Sciutto asked Troye why the missing messages, which are linked to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, weren’t actively preserved.
“It’s a little surprising,” said Troye. “I have worked technical migrations in the government, and I find it a little bit confusing that people were not aware that these messages were going to disappear, especially with the amount of planning that goes into these migrations. I can tell you that firsthand having done it.”
While DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari’s office planned to contact all Homeland Security agencies to assist in recovering the missing messages in February 2021, sources told The Washington Post it decided not to collect the phones or review any data later that month.
“I came from DHS,” Troye told CNN. “When you work at the senior levels in the Trump administration ?? you know exactly where people’s loyalties lie. I know [Ken] Cuccinelli and Chad Wolf and all these people and Cuffari very well.” (Cuccinelli and Wolf were the acting leaders at DHS at the time.)
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https://news.yahoo.com/ex-dhs-aide-suggests-she-221308097.html
The guy may be unqualified to serve as Inspector General, but he’s over qualified to serve a wannabe Führer.
Book him, Danno.
DU OP July 31, 2022: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216986203