The ATF has a lot to answer for. Jeff wrote about just one of many things the bureau needs to be asked hard questions about, with its illegal surveillance of lawful gun owners.
It seems the ATF was up to a lot more than surveillance, though.
In fact, it seems some serious internal shenanigans were at play and should result in prison time for some:
Two Senate Republicans are calling for immediate corrective action at the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), accusing agency officials of substantial misconduct, mismanagement, abuse of power and potential criminal misconduct after supervisory staff allegedly disregarded federal directives and standards in order to inflate their salaries.
What's more, instead of being disciplined, the supervisory agents who allegedly turned a blind eye to the misconduct – and in some cases allegedly retaliated against whistleblowers trying to expose it – were promoted under the Biden administration, the senators say.
"As a result of ATF’s illegal conduct, ATF staff assigned to these positions performed administrative work but unlawfully received enhanced law enforcement pay and benefits to which they were not entitled, wasting millions of taxpayer dollars," Iowa's Republican senators, Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, wrote in a letter transmitted Friday to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and ATF acting Director Daniel Driscoll.
In their letter, the senators cited two internal investigations from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which concluded in 2020 and ultimately suspended the ATF's classification authority, and the ATF Internal Affairs Division (IAD), which was completed in early 2024. Despite the suspension from OPM in 2020, which was lifted in 2023, ATF officials disregarded OPM directives and continued to re-classify agency employees improperly, according to the senators.
...In their letter, Grassley and Ernst singled out two supervisory agents, Lisa Boykin and Ralph Bittelari, who they say the IAD audit shows not only allowed the continuance of this misclassification scheme – despite knowing it violated OPM directives and standards – but also retaliated against whistleblowers trying to expose it.
Furthermore, the senators claim, Boykin and Bittelari were promoted before President Joe Biden left office and continue to work at the ATF under President Donald Trump.
Interestingly, one of the two ATF officials named, Boykin, has been the subject of at least some controversy since Trump took office. She was the DEI director for the ATF, who was then moved to a new, previously non-existent role at the agency after the president ordered all DEI personnel to be suspended.
What she was doing playing around in these other internal sandboxes seems like a mystery to me, though my guess is that some of this was driven by thoughts of "equity," rather than anything practical.
Now, keep in mind that this is the same ATF that has been discovered doing all kinds of shady things directed toward lawful gun owners, but is also doing shady things behind the scenes.
For the smallest federal law enforcement agency out there, it sure does seem like it thinks it's above little things like the laws it's supposed to enforce, doesn't it?
Grassley and Ernst are asking for remarkably little, all things considered. They just called for "corrective action," which I'm sure ATF officials would generally categorize as a suspension or demotion, maybe. For me, it should probably result in prison time for trying to increase pay for people who didn't deserve it, retaliating against whistleblowers, and generally being disgusting excuses for human beings.
