{"id":109994,"date":"2025-05-14T13:48:57","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T18:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=109994"},"modified":"2025-05-14T13:48:57","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T18:48:57","slug":"109994","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=109994","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Senators Grassley, Ernst on Warpath v. ATF in Letter to Bondi<\/a><\/p>\n

Alleging a pattern of \u201cgross and substantial waste, fraud and abuse, as well as potentially criminal false certification of government records and whistleblower retaliation\u201d involving two senior officials at the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst want Attorney General Pamela Bondi to take \u201cimmediate corrective action.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a\u00a0letter to Bondi<\/a>, Acting ATF Director Daniel Driscoll and Assistant Attorney General Jolene Ann Lauria, who heads the Justice Department\u2019s Administration Justice Management Division, Grassley and Ernst assert their previous efforts during the Biden administration went essentially unanswered.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Biden administration\u2019s ATF illegally lined employees\u2019 pockets with tens-of-millions of taxpayer dollars,\u201d Grassley said in a\u00a0joint statement<\/a>. \u201cThese Washington bureaucrats must answer for their misconduct, and if heads don\u2019t roll, nothing will change. Without the continued persistence of brave whistleblowers, ATF\u2019s illegal scheme would\u2019ve likely continued. As always, sunshine is the best disinfectant. Attorney General Pam Bondi should take strong action to hold these Biden-era pencil pushers accountable and end the fraudulent waste at ATF.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Named in their letter and statement are ATF Senior Executive Lisa Boykin and Justice Management Division (JMD) Acting Deputy Director of Human Resources (HR) Ralph Bittelari.<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

According to their May 9 letter to Bondi, both GOP senators recall their request for the ATF Internal Affairs Division (IAD) report and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Human Capital Management Evaluation (HCME) audit report, following allegations about ATF\u2019s \u201cillegal scheme to misclassify human resources (HR) and other administrative positions as law enforcement, which was substantiated by the Office of Special Counsel.\u201d<\/p>\n

In our previous letters, we requested the agencies provide us with the ATF Internal Affairs Division (IAD) report and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Human Capital Management Evaluation (HCME) audit report.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe IAD report was completed on January 5, 2024,\u201d the Grassley-Ernst letter notes, \u201cand it highlights considerable evidence of gross waste, fraud, and abuse; substantial misconduct and mismanagement; abuse of power; and potential criminal misconduct\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

The ATF has been under intense criticism for many years, especially for activities during the past four years under the Biden administration\u2019s \u201czero tolerance\u201d policy against firearms retailers. Even small paperwork errors were targeted, critics have asserted. It was part of the Biden administration\u2019s alleged \u201cweaponization\u201d of federal agencies against gun dealers and gun owners.<\/p>\n

As evidence of how bad feelings on Capitol Hill have been running against the ATF, in January Republican Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert and Congressman Eric Burlison of Missouri, introduced\u00a0H.R. 129<\/a>, known as the \u201cAbolish the ATF Act<\/a>.\u201d The legislation is co-sponsored by Reps. Andy Biggs (AZ-05), Mike Collins (GA-10), Bob Onder (MO-03), Andy Ogles (TN-05), Mary Miller (IL-15), Keith Self (TX-03), and Paul Gosar (AZ-09). It was assigned to the House Judiciary Committee.<\/p>\n

Grassley and Ernst asked Bondi for a response by May 23 to include \u201cthe strategy the Justice Department will take in addressing the issues raised in this letter, as well as answers to our January 30, 2024 and September 23, 2024 letters.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senators Grassley, Ernst on Warpath v. ATF in Letter to Bondi Alleging a pattern of \u201cgross and substantial waste, fraud and abuse, as well as potentially criminal false certification of government records and whistleblower retaliation\u201d involving two senior officials at the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bureaucraps","category-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109994"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109995,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109994\/revisions\/109995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}