October 03, 2024

Ranking Members Raskin and Thompson Call for Removal of Inspector General Cuffari Following Damning Report

CIGIE Report Details Cuffari’s Serious Misconduct, Obstruction, Abuse of Power, Waste of Taxpayer Funds

(WASHINGTON) - Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, and Ranking Member Bennie G. Thompson, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, issued the following statement after the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) released its report on the Inspector General (IG) of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Joseph V. Cuffari:

“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. CIGIE’s report confirms the findings of our own multi-year investigation, which is that DHS Inspector General Cuffari misled Congress during his confirmation to become an inspector general and, after becoming an inspector general, once again misled Congress and proceeded to blatantly abuse his powers and waste millions in taxpayer dollars.

“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. Inspector General Cuffari’s unprecedented misconduct in office has been underscored and exacerbated by his persistent and repeated obstruction of oversight efforts. Not only did he fail to fully and meaningfully comply with our investigation—he actively worked to undermine and thwart it. Inspector General Cuffari's actions are an outrageous affront and embarrassment to the inspector general community and have undermined the reputation of the entire DHS Office of Inspector General.”

The report found the following violations:

IG Cuffari Lied to Congress During His Confirmation Process: IG Cuffari provided wrongfully inaccurate and misleading responses to Congress during his confirmation process by failing to acknowledge that he was previously the subject of a federal investigation into his misconduct as a sworn law enforcement officer for the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General. He also failed to disclose that he retired immediately after learning that these potentially career-impacting allegations of misconduct were pending.

IG Cuffari Misrepresented to Congress His Role in an Outside Investigation of DHS OIG: After his confirmation, IG Cuffari hired a private law firm to investigate three former senior members of his staff. In written responses to questions from Congress, IG Cuffari knowingly misrepresented his role in that outside law firm’s personnel investigations by telling Congress it was an independent investigation, and he was a “mere witness.” To the contrary, the Integrity Committee found that IG Cuffari intervened in the investigation for his own benefit—a clear abuse of his authority.

IG Cuffari Engaged in Gross Waste of Taxpayer Funds: IG Cuffari expended $1.39 million of taxpayer funds to hire a private law firm to investigate three former senior members of his staff, most likely for his “personal” interest and in order to retaliate against two of them. Two of these employees had lodged formal complaints about IG Cuffari. One employee ultimately received a $1.17 million settlement to resolve claims of retaliation.

The CIGIE Integrity Committee Referred Three Additional Allegations to the President: The Integrity Committee explained that they did not further investigate certain issues because they doubted that IG Cuffari would cooperate with additional investigatory efforts and the additional investigation would delay the publication of the substantiated allegations. IG Cuffari’s alleged misconduct extended so far beyond the bounds of acceptable standards that the Integrity Committee referred the following charges for further investigation, including:

“IG Cuffari and a DHS OIG senior executive diminished and delayed reports regarding sexual harassment at DHS and domestic abuse by DHS personnel”;
“IG Cuffari and one of his senior executives failed to timely and adequately disclose to Congress the Secret Service’s deletion of text messages that were potentially relevant to Congress’ January 6th investigation”; and
“IG Cuffari deleted his own work-related text messages and one of his senior executives failed to report that fact to National Archives and Records Administration.”

Although the CIGIE Integrity Committee report did not investigate IG Cuffari’s deletion of text messages, it obtained evidence that contrary to IG Cuffari’s testimony at a June 6, 2023, House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs hearing that he routinely deleted text messages on his government issued cell phone, but that he did not use that phone to “conduct business” he did in fact send and receive text messages from his government issued cell phone that related to his work.
In response to the substantiated misconduct, the Integrity Committee recommended that the President take appropriate action up to and including removal of IG Cuffari.

Background:

The Committees have a longstanding investigation into Inspector General Cuffari’s poor leadership and gross mismanagement of DHS OIG. Despite IG Cuffari’s repeated attempts to thwart meaningful oversight, the Committees continued to seek accountability.

In June 2023, Oversight Democrats wrote to the Archivist of the United States calling for an investigation into IG Cuffari following his alarming admission at a Committee hearing that he may have repeatedly violated federal law by deleting text messages on his government-issued cell phone. In July 2023, Homeland Security Democrats followed up with the Archivist and NARA with additional documents. The Committees also learned about a whistleblower complaint made to the NARA Office of Inspector General in March 2023 regarding IG Cuffari’s deletion of federal records.

In July 2023, Ranking Member Raskin and Ranking Member Thompson sent a letter to IG Cuffari requesting documents regarding his use of taxpayer funds to settle claims of retaliation against him. The Ranking Members renewed their calls in a January 2024 letter to IG Cuffari, in light of new evidence obtained by the Committees that revealed he may not have followed his office’s procedures when he delegated authority to his Chief of Staff to sign a $1.17 million retaliation settlement against him.

Then, in response to the Ranking Members’ letters, in February 2024 IG Cuffari wrote to the Oversight and Accountability and Homeland Security Committee chairmen asking them to intervene in Committee Democrats’ investigation—a blatant attempt to obstruct oversight. IG Cuffari falsely claimed that DHS OIG was not under investigation because the oversight is not being conducted by the Committees’ Majorities, and incorrectly designated himself a whistleblower to shield himself from oversight despite being the head of a federal agency and thus not covered by the Whistleblower Protection Act.

In March 2024, the Ranking Members wrote to Chairmen James Comer and Mark Green urging them to reject IG Cuffari’s continued attempts to evade oversight and accountability after repeatedly failing to comply with Congressional Democrats’ request for documents and information regarding his mismanagement of DHS OIG.

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Press Contact

Nelly Decker (Oversight and Accountability): 202-226-5181
Adam Comis (Homeland Security): 202-225-9978