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Under Fire, Top Official Resigns Post
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ShareJune 08, 2007 1:09 PM
The embattled top cop at the U.S. Department of Commerce resigned yesterday, shortly after a federal investigation concluded he had violated laws protecting whistle-blowers.
Commerce Inspector General Johnnie E. Frazier had faced investigations by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) and a White House integrity panel for a laundry list of allegations ranging from fraud and abuse to retaliation against employees who reported wrongdoing.
"I would be remiss in failing to acknowledge my disappointment and outright sadness at leaving Commerce at a time when my office and I are the subject of controversy," Frazier wrote President Bush in his June 7 letter of resignation.
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But "it does not diminish my pride in and gratitude for the wonderful career I have been blessed with here at Commerce, or my appreciation for the countless outstanding people I have had the good fortune to work with along the way," Frazier wrote.
In a report dated May 25, the Office of Special Counsel concluded Frazier, whose job includes protecting whistle-blowers, had violated prohibitions against punishing subordinates who tell authorities allegations of misbehavior. Last October, Frazier reassigned two senior employees to posts that could be considered demotions after they reported an incident of possible fraud by the inspector general himself.
In a May 17 letter, Frazier disagreed with the report's findings.
"With all due respect, you are wrong to conclude that I have retaliated against two...employees," he wrote Special Counsel Scott Bloch, responding to a draft of Bloch's report.
Frazier said he reassigned the employees because of "the complete collapse of...my relationship" with one of the complainants and "the toxic environment that this created" in his office.
Frazier accused the employees of "fabricating" their charges to discredit him because "I had lost all faith and confidence and them."
In a response to Frazier's letter, Bloch noted that Frazier had never documented any loss of faith or confidence in the pair. Neither had he recorded any deficiencies in the employees' performance, Bloch's office wrote. According to OSC, Frazier had even glowingly characterized the performance of one of them in a document he provided Bloch's investigators.
Frazier's resignation is effective June 29.
Photo is courtesy of the Department of Commerce.
Do you have a tip for Brian Ross and the Investigative Team?
June 8, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (10)
If they find him guilty will they give him 45 days of house arrest?
Posted by: skidog | Jun 8, 2007 2:14:05 PM
Didn't someone want to appoint him, or wasn't he appointed to a post not long ago????? He was tainted when he was appointed.
Posted by: Dave | Jun 8, 2007 5:52:41 PM
The White House has a integrity panel?
Posted by: william schesventer | Jun 9, 2007 2:58:28 PM
Why would I be surprised!
Posted by: Jerome A. Stoll | Jun 9, 2007 3:34:52 PM
Suprised NO! It just keeps getting better and better everyday. What next?
Posted by: ant | Jun 10, 2007 10:45:02 AM
Maybe he will cry for his Mommy!
Posted by: artist22 | Jun 11, 2007 1:28:21 PM
This crook looks like Rep Jefferson that crooked democrat, you people are tring to fool us now...Don't you know PRECEDENT BUSH would never have a sycophantic lackey like this working for his administration...somebody put a picture of Rep Jefferson under this fine mans story...DOH...which way did they go...which way did they go...
Posted by: daddy | Jun 11, 2007 3:48:40 PM
Mom!!! It's not riiiight!"
Posted by: Dave | Jun 11, 2007 7:06:09 PM
Congratulations Mr. Rood on a fine piece of reporting. You are the only journalists who has even bothered to fairly report both sides of this investigation. There are two follow up items that need more research and reporting on.
First, you should point out that the Special Counsel Scott Bloch is a well-known Bushie appointee who is in deep trouble with the White House and is trying to put a notch in his gun to save his skin. Going after an IG with no evidence but only one-sided accusations from problem employees appears to be how Bushie justice is handed out by the OSC.
For your reader's background, please note Mr. Frazier was appointed by Clinton in 1999 and has served in the DoC for 37 years. He is not a Bushie.
The second item you need in order to complete the story is a letter sent by the senior IG staff to the Deputy Secretary of Commerce David Sampson that will answer many of your reader's questions and complete the story. If you do so, you will finally get all the facts revealed to the public, not just the one sided spin they are getting from the OSC and the House Committee.
Posted by: Jane Smythe | Jun 11, 2007 10:03:29 PM
Well, at least there WAS a media report, I guess, but it's pretty lousy all the same. In addition to lacking the the info that Jane Smyth helpfully provided, there's no indication whatsoever of the nature of the purported fraud Bloch's office "found," nor any mention of the fact that Bloch himself is purportedly under investigation.
The 4th Estate falling down on the job yet again ~ no wonder we pay more attention to celebrity gossip than to the egregious shennanigans going on in every branch of our government. The latter requires sustained attention & concentration. No wonder we're in the mess we are today.
"Mom, it's just right," indeed!
Posted by: Liberal Lawyer | Jun 13, 2007 7:17:19 PM
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