A New Orleans FBI agent who blew the whistle on a case involving multiple women being sexually harassed finally got his position restored after a nine-year battle. This story comes just days after FBI Director Kash Patel announced that his agency had concluded agreements with 10 whistleblowers to restore their positions and security clearances, as well as to offer back pay.
In 2016, New Orleans FBI Agent Mike Zummer investigated a district attorney who used the power of his office to have oral sex with five women, sexually battered eight women and asked nine others for sexual favors.
During the investigation, Zummer observed that New Orleans U.S. Assistant Attorneys had conflicts of interest, including the first AUSA owning property with the district attorney’s defense attorney.
Zummer said he reported this conflict of interest and the case ended up being closed.
References to sexual abuse were deleted
“We were able to get the case re-opened again with a new U.S. attorney, but they ultimately found 22 victims of this DA,” Zummer said on the “Just the News, No Noise” TV show on Friday. “We got approval to charge them with racketeering, which is a huge charge. But unfortunately, the new U.S. attorney allowed his office to basically lead this guy down to harassing a witness with a three-year maximum sentence and essentially cut out all of the sexual abuse from the factual basis that was filed with the court.”
He asked permission to notify the presiding judge of the misconduct that favored the district attorney. When permission was denied, he submitted a draft letter to the FBI before publishing it. When the FBI didn’t review the letter, he sent it to the court. Even though it contained no classified information, Zummer was labeled a whistleblower and was suspended. He had his security clearance revoked for sending the letter to court.
Zummer did get his job back, and that the deal made under Kash Patel would allow him to retire and get his security clearance back, according to a local media outlet.
Agent: the FBI “was worried about their reputation”
“It’ll be nine years September 30,” Zummer said. “So [I was] suspended indefinitely without pay, and I filed a lawsuit. I’ve been fighting in court ever since, really, until this deal.”
He said he felt like at the time this event happened, the Justice Department wasn’t interested in justice, but protecting reputations. “I think they were really just so worried about their reputation and looking bad because they previously declined the case and I don’t think they wanted to allow an FBI agent to have blown the whistle on them,” he said.
Another whistleblower who got an agreement was Marcus Allen, who lost his security clearance after speaking out against alleged FBI corruption amid the Capitol Hill Jan. 6 riot in 2021.
Allen told “Just the News, No Noise” that he was thankful for the restitution, but the fight was long and hard. “It does take a lot out of you, but the spiritual fortification and our faith in God has increased over this fight,” he said. “We’ve really tended to our faith.” Allen, a practicing Catholic, told The National Catholic Register that “I felt convicted in my actions by the Holy Spirit.”
Empower Oversight, a nonprofit group that supports whistleblowers, has been behind government whistleblowers’ cases and supported them for the last few years. “We’ve actually kind of been overwhelmed in the last few days after the announcement came out,” Empower Oversight founder Jason Foster said, referring to the announcement about deals with the whistleblowers.
“The fight for these 10 clients is over, and we’ve been working on their cases for a long time,” he later said. “But the fight for whistleblower protection, for the FBI and other agencies, is definitely not over. We’ve had tons of contact from other people who haven’t been able to get this kind of justice.”
