Independent panel calls for removal of Homeland Security watchdog

An independent group of investigators called on President Biden to remove the government watchdog at the Department of Homeland Security, finding Inspector General Joseph Cuffari misled Congress, abused his authority and “engaged in substantial misconduct” while also wasting taxpayer funds.

The long-awaited report from the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) comes after the body disclosed they have received “a litany of complaints” – 24 in total – about Cuffari.

It’s the latest chapter in a long saga involving the embattled inspector general, who has faced accusations of burying reports, retaliating against his own employees, deleting his own text messages and botching investigations into the entities where he is supposed to serve as an independent watchdog.

Inspectors general can only be removed by the president, and CIGIE said Cuffari should be “referred for appropriate action, up to and including removal.”

The report – just over 1,000 pages with exhibits – covers four years of complaints about Cuffari, who was appointed by former President Trump. It was drafted for CIGIE by the Trump-appointed inspector general for the Department of Transportation.

It determines the inspector general misled Congress during his confirmation proceedings, providing “wrongfully inaccurate” information and failing to disclose that he retired amid an earlier investigation into his conduct when he served in the IG office for the Department of Justice, a move that “essentially precluded the disciplinary process from moving forward.”

Confirmation paperwork asks if a nominee has been the subject of an ethics investigation or quit a job to avoid misconduct filings and Cuffari answered no to both. The report found Cuffari “materially omitted the fact that he was the subject of an investigation” and “instead knowingly provided an incomplete and inaccurate narrative.”

Cuffari’s office, which has not responded to an inquiry from The Hill since September of 2022, did not respond to request for comment on the report.

The report also goes deep into Cuffari’s feud with three employees in his office who had raised concerns he was not qualified for the role, including that he had received his PhD from “an unaccredited ‘diploma mill.’”

Cuffari hired an outside firm, WilmerHale, to investigate the allegations, but fired one of the employees before its completion, sparking a lawsuit.

While DHS OIG ultimately spent $1.393 million for a law firm to conduct the investigation, a civil suit filed by a former employee challenging her removal settled for $1.17 million.

Thursday’s report found that Cuffari “abused his authority” in launching the outside investigation as a way to retaliate against the three employees. It also determined hiring the outside firm was a “gross waste of funds.”

“Further, IG Cuffari personally attempted to intervene in the WilmerHale investigation for his own benefit,” the report found.

Top Democrats on Thursday likewise called for Biden to remove Cuffari, with House Homeland Security Committee ranking member Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Oversight Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) complaining he stalled their own oversight efforts.

“In the wake of the independent and nonpartisan CIGIE Integrity Committee’s report documenting IG Cuffari’s misconduct, we call on President Biden to remove him as inspector general of DHS,” Thompson and Raskin wrote in a joint statement.

“An inspector general has the profound responsibility of acting as the independent, nonpartisan watchdog of a federal agency, but Inspector General Cuffari’s extensive and shocking record of misconduct and obstruction is 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.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cuffari has been plagued by numerous allegations of wrongdoing throughout his tenure, many of which were not covered by the CIGIE report.

He waited months to alert Congress of the loss of texts among the Secret Service agents on Jan. 6, 2021 – a possible violation of a law that requires such disclosure to Congress or the heads of relevant agencies. He similarly failed to notify the loss of messages from then-acting Secretary Chad Wolf and his deputy Ken Cuccinelli, when their phones were erased during the transition.  

Lawmakers from both chambers of Congress have also asked Cuffari to step aside from the investigation into the missing texts.

Cuffari has also declined to investigate major events involving the agencies he helps oversee or imposed limits on their reach.  

He declined to investigate after Border Patrol officers on horseback corralled Haitian migrants. Instead, the matter was handed off to its Office of Professional Responsibility.   

In 2020, he refused to initiate an investigation into the Secret Service’s involvement and response to the clearing of protesters who had gathered in Lafayette Square just outside the White House that June to protest the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police.

The Senate Judiciary Committee also previously asked Cuffari both about an unpublished report detailing widespread employee concerns over sexual harassment at DHS as well as a move by Cuffari to “substantially restrict” another report evaluating how the agency complied with a law requiring the removal of law enforcement officers with domestic violence convictions.

The report Cuffari did not publish dealt with results from a 2018 survey, the year before he was confirmed, that found some 10,000 of 28,000 DHS employees who responded said that they have experienced sexual harassment or misconduct at work, while a substantial percentage said reporting that behavior negatively impacted their careers.  

Cuffari last year also offered a confusing answer in a hearing, suggesting he deletes his own texts, another possible violation of record keeping laws.

Outside groups that have investigated Cuffari likewise called for his removal.

“Not only has Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari shown that he does not have the appropriate appetite to conduct robust oversight of the Department of Homeland Security; he has also attempted to undermine the system that holds inspectors general accountable,” the Project On Government Oversight said in a statement.

“Now that the Integrity Committee has released its investigation finding that Cuffari retaliated against whistleblowers, President Joe Biden has even more evidence to justify removing Cuffari in his position at the DHS inspector general office. Biden must not delay any longer. He must remove Cuffari immediately.”