To: President Donald Trump, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate
OSC Special Counsel Carolyn Lerner Caught Lying to the President
STOP government corruption and hold agency heads accountable for misconduct in office.
Why is this important?
The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is an independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency. OSC's primary mission is to safeguard the merit system by protecting federal employees and applicants from prohibited personnel practices, especially reprisal for whistleblowing.
In July 2013, a federal employee (disabled veteran) went to OSC and disclosed what she believed to be White House vetting improprieties and contract fraud by senior officials at the National Council on Disability (NCD). In March 2013, the White House appointed Jeffrey Rosen, a former NCD employee as the Chairperson of the agency. Shortly thereafter the whistleblower discovered that Rosen had a background of DUI and was previously found guilty of criminal misconduct in the agency, which led to his resignation prior to his punishment in 2007. In 1994, Rosen was stopped in Montgomery County, Maryland for erratic driving. He failed a field sobriety test and, after signing a consent form, failed a breath test. Rosen was then arrested and taken to the station house, where he signed a form that explained his rights and gave consent to a chemical test. The test registered a reading indicating blood-alcohol content above the legal limit. Rosen was given probation before judgment, fined, and ordered to attend six alcoholics’ anonymous meetings as a condition of having his conviction expunged. The question looms “did Rosen complete his meetings” because it appears that his record was not expunged and is public record online.
The White House employee involved in Rosen’s vetting was hired within 30-days of Rosen’s appointment as Chairperson and was awarded a $59K pay increase despite not having any relevant position or managerial experience. Managerial experience possessed by this employee was retail experience working in Victoria Secrets. Her lack of experience caused great harm to the agency. Rosen and this employee were also involved in the contract fraud reported by the whistleblower, whereas these individuals were improperly awarding contracts without competition, extending expired contracts and using expired government funds to pay for these contracts.
With knowledge of Rosen’s past misconduct, it’s hard to understand how Special Counsel Lerner entrusted him to be honest. Nonetheless, she referred these matters back to Rosen for investigation, which allowed Rosen and other responsible parties to investigate themselves. Special Counsel Lerner purposely omitted pertinent details of the facts prior to referring the matters to Rosen for investigation. And despite having an abundance of evidence to substantiate the whistleblower’s claims of audit and contract fraud, Special Counsel Lerner and her staff lied to the President and Congress in her official report. In fact, Special Counsel Lerner's three (3) page report failed to address many factual and documented issues the whistleblower raised in her comments and the use of expired government funds.
Special Counsel Lerner started out lying in her report by stating that “members of Rosen’s in-house investigative team were not implicated in any way in the wrongdoings and could conduct a fair and impartial investigation." She even made defenses for the agency that the agency did not mention in it's report and made false statements against the whistleblower in order to strategically conceal the whistleblower’s official comments to the agency investigative report from the general public by not posting them to OSC’s website.
Special Council Lerner had in her possession evidence from agency employees corroborating the whistleblowers claims. In an email to the whistleblower, NCD Council Member Gary Blumenthal, who was named in the wrongdoings and who was a member of Rosen’s in-house investigative team writes “I agree with you that a substantial amount of observations you have made about contracts are clearly accurate.” He goes on to say “you inherited a very problematic set of issues when you joined NCD. Federal procedures, contractual rules and internal controls were minimally respected at best.” Despite Blumenthal’s admission to contract violations, he and other members of Rosen’s in-house investigative team erroneously found no violations during their investigation.
In another email, the Legislative Affairs Director “expressed her concerns and the concerns of others flagged over the last couple of years regarding the agency’s IT contract being inadequate. She stated “it was during the course of that review and contrast against solid contracts for the same services that I came to more fully appreciate the concerns the whistleblower’s been raising and how vulnerable NCD is as a result of a less than adequate original contract.” Despite having an abundance of incriminating evidence in her possession, in her report to the President and the Congress, Special Counsel Lerner states “she did not find any violations of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR).” And although the Senate Help Committee was given a “sneak preview” of the reports by OSC staff, the committee was encouraged not to take action by Special Counsel Lerner.
Special Counsel Lerner stalled releasing investigative findings allowing Rosen time to complete his term as Chairperson without any actions being taken against him. Rosen left office around September 18, 2015 and soon thereafter Special Counsel Lerner conveniently released her findings to the President on September 30, 2015; over two (2) years after the issues were originally reported to her office by the whistleblower.
What’s more alarming is in December 2013, the whistleblower disclosed to OSC what she believed to be improprieties with the agency’s 2013 audit. The whistleblower also disclosed that agency employees were destroying incriminating contracting files. However, Special Counsel Lerner’s office took no action, not even to open an inquiry. According to Rosen “Ms. Lerner sent a letter to auditors at the com...
In July 2013, a federal employee (disabled veteran) went to OSC and disclosed what she believed to be White House vetting improprieties and contract fraud by senior officials at the National Council on Disability (NCD). In March 2013, the White House appointed Jeffrey Rosen, a former NCD employee as the Chairperson of the agency. Shortly thereafter the whistleblower discovered that Rosen had a background of DUI and was previously found guilty of criminal misconduct in the agency, which led to his resignation prior to his punishment in 2007. In 1994, Rosen was stopped in Montgomery County, Maryland for erratic driving. He failed a field sobriety test and, after signing a consent form, failed a breath test. Rosen was then arrested and taken to the station house, where he signed a form that explained his rights and gave consent to a chemical test. The test registered a reading indicating blood-alcohol content above the legal limit. Rosen was given probation before judgment, fined, and ordered to attend six alcoholics’ anonymous meetings as a condition of having his conviction expunged. The question looms “did Rosen complete his meetings” because it appears that his record was not expunged and is public record online.
The White House employee involved in Rosen’s vetting was hired within 30-days of Rosen’s appointment as Chairperson and was awarded a $59K pay increase despite not having any relevant position or managerial experience. Managerial experience possessed by this employee was retail experience working in Victoria Secrets. Her lack of experience caused great harm to the agency. Rosen and this employee were also involved in the contract fraud reported by the whistleblower, whereas these individuals were improperly awarding contracts without competition, extending expired contracts and using expired government funds to pay for these contracts.
With knowledge of Rosen’s past misconduct, it’s hard to understand how Special Counsel Lerner entrusted him to be honest. Nonetheless, she referred these matters back to Rosen for investigation, which allowed Rosen and other responsible parties to investigate themselves. Special Counsel Lerner purposely omitted pertinent details of the facts prior to referring the matters to Rosen for investigation. And despite having an abundance of evidence to substantiate the whistleblower’s claims of audit and contract fraud, Special Counsel Lerner and her staff lied to the President and Congress in her official report. In fact, Special Counsel Lerner's three (3) page report failed to address many factual and documented issues the whistleblower raised in her comments and the use of expired government funds.
Special Counsel Lerner started out lying in her report by stating that “members of Rosen’s in-house investigative team were not implicated in any way in the wrongdoings and could conduct a fair and impartial investigation." She even made defenses for the agency that the agency did not mention in it's report and made false statements against the whistleblower in order to strategically conceal the whistleblower’s official comments to the agency investigative report from the general public by not posting them to OSC’s website.
Special Council Lerner had in her possession evidence from agency employees corroborating the whistleblowers claims. In an email to the whistleblower, NCD Council Member Gary Blumenthal, who was named in the wrongdoings and who was a member of Rosen’s in-house investigative team writes “I agree with you that a substantial amount of observations you have made about contracts are clearly accurate.” He goes on to say “you inherited a very problematic set of issues when you joined NCD. Federal procedures, contractual rules and internal controls were minimally respected at best.” Despite Blumenthal’s admission to contract violations, he and other members of Rosen’s in-house investigative team erroneously found no violations during their investigation.
In another email, the Legislative Affairs Director “expressed her concerns and the concerns of others flagged over the last couple of years regarding the agency’s IT contract being inadequate. She stated “it was during the course of that review and contrast against solid contracts for the same services that I came to more fully appreciate the concerns the whistleblower’s been raising and how vulnerable NCD is as a result of a less than adequate original contract.” Despite having an abundance of incriminating evidence in her possession, in her report to the President and the Congress, Special Counsel Lerner states “she did not find any violations of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR).” And although the Senate Help Committee was given a “sneak preview” of the reports by OSC staff, the committee was encouraged not to take action by Special Counsel Lerner.
Special Counsel Lerner stalled releasing investigative findings allowing Rosen time to complete his term as Chairperson without any actions being taken against him. Rosen left office around September 18, 2015 and soon thereafter Special Counsel Lerner conveniently released her findings to the President on September 30, 2015; over two (2) years after the issues were originally reported to her office by the whistleblower.
What’s more alarming is in December 2013, the whistleblower disclosed to OSC what she believed to be improprieties with the agency’s 2013 audit. The whistleblower also disclosed that agency employees were destroying incriminating contracting files. However, Special Counsel Lerner’s office took no action, not even to open an inquiry. According to Rosen “Ms. Lerner sent a letter to auditors at the com...