By Orhan Cam / Shutterstock.com

State Dept. Violated Civil Service Laws in Transferring Employee, IG Finds

The report is the second this year to substantiate allegations of illegal political retaliation against civil servants at State.

The State Department violated civil service laws in reassigning at least one employee due to perceptions about her ethnicity and political views, according to new investigatory findings, which also found potential wrongdoing involving other personnel decisions. 

The State inspector general reviewed five potential cases of unlawful treatment of civil service employees. It verified the illegal conduct occurred in one case, while stating it did not receive enough information from State to make a determination in two others. The IG found no evidence of wrongdoing in the remaining cases. 

The investigations were a long time in the making. Government Executive first reported in January 2018 that the IG was probing allegations of political targeting and other prohibited personnel practices. The new report follows another released in August that substantiated several instances of high-level State officials systematically targeting career staffers based on work they carried out during the Obama administration. 

The case involving career employee Sahar Nowrouzzadeh—who in early 2017 was on detail to the Office of Policy Planning within the Office of the Secretary—surrounded an inaccurate article by a conservative outlet that attacked her for her work during the Obama administration. Several outsiders sent the story to top aides to then-State Secretary Rex Tillerson, including liaisons to the White House. The aides then engaged in various discussions about Nowrouzzadeh’s loyalty to President Trump and the country. In one email, Julia Haller, the White House liaison to State, noted Nowrouzzadeh’s Iranian heritage and said “my understanding is she cried when the president won.” Haller told the IG she mentioned Nowrouzzdeh’s national origin because she thought it could create a conflict of interest, given that Nowrouzzadeh was working on Iraninan policy. 

Nowrouzzadeh eventually sent the story to her boss, Office of Policy Planning Director Brian Hook, asking for advice on how to correct the record with regard to the article. She noted in her email that she started working for State during the George W. Bush administration and “adapted [her] work to the policy priorities of every administration [she] worked for.” Hook did not respond to the email or a follow-up, the IG found, but eventually met with Nowrouzzadeh and told her the article and subsequent physical threats she received were “fairly standard” and to be expected. In other emails, Ed Lacey, Hook’s deputy, “generally described career employees detailed to [his office] as ‘Obama/Clinton loyalists.’” 

State eventually ended Nowrouzzadeh’s detail 10 weeks early, sending her back to her position in the Near East Affairs Bureau. The IG noted the department has discretion to end details, but that flexibility is not “unbounded.” Investigators found no evidence that anyone at State involved in ending Nowrouzzadeh’s detail actually examined her fitness for the job or whether she was unwilling to implement department policy. Instead, the IG said, her “perceived political opinions, perceived association with former administrations, and her perceived national origin played at least some role” in the decision to end her detail and was therefore improper. 

The behavior of the State officials “strikes at the heart of the career service, which envisions professional employees who serve across administrations,” the IG said. The office recommended that State “consider whether disciplinary action is appropriate” for any department official involved in inappropriate action involving Nowrouzzadeh. State Counselor T. Ulrich Brechbühl responded that Secretary Mike Pompeo “will consider whether disciplinary action is appropriate,” though he said the department disagreed than any laws were broken. 

In a statement, Nowrouzzadeh said she hoped the IG’s finding would “prompt action that will guard against any further such misconduct by members of this or any future administration.”

"I continue to strongly encourage Americans of all backgrounds, including those of Iranian heritage, to consider public service to our nation and to not be discouraged by these findings," she said, adding the government should “value rigorous debate among colleagues with deep experience when formulating U.S. policy on matters critical to our national security.”

The investigators also looked into two cases in which career employees were detailed to a “surge” force created by Tillerson to address a backlog of Freedom of Information Act requests. While the employees complained they were relegated to administrative work due to their previous roles under the Obama administration—one of the employees, for example, had worked on closing the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay—the IG did not find evidence those decisions were politically motivated or otherwise improper. 

A fourth employee, Lawrence Bartlett, a career Senior Executive Service employee, was reassigned from the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration to another SES position at the direction of Christine Ciccone, Tillerson’s deputy chief of staff. While other officials reached out on Bartlett’s behalf, Ciccone—now an assistant secretary at the Homeland Security Department—said she “lost confidence” in him without providing further justification. Bartlett was featured in a February 2017 Breitbart story titled “Top 10 Holdover Obama Bureaucrats President Trump Can Fire or Remove Today,” though the IG did not find evidence that influenced the decision to transfer him. Ultimately, due to a lack of a written record and Ciccone’s “evasive answers to questions during her interview” with investigators, the IG was “unable to reach a conclusion” as to whether State complied with civil service laws in reassigning Bartlett. 

The IG also examined a Senior Foreign Service member who was passed over for a deputy assistant secretary position and transferred out of a position in the Near East Affairs Bureau. While political appointees passed around articles and their own notes that denigrated the employee—including one in 2017 from then-White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon that said the administration was getting “tremendous blowback on this guy”—investigators again were unable to reach a conclusion on whether civil service laws were violated. 

In addition to potential discipline, the IG recommended that State ensure all appointees receive training on prohibited personnel practices and related policies. The department said it has already taken action to address the recommendation.

Reps. Eliot Engel and Carolyn Maloney, New York Democrats who chair the Foreign Affairs and Oversight and Reform Committees, respectively, called on Pompeo to follow through on taking "strong disciplinary action against all those who engaged in these abuses." 

“The Trump Administration does not have the right to attack career employees who dedicate their lives to our nation—especially not as part of some sort of ill-conceived and groundless political ‘cleaning’ operation," they said in a joint statement. "This disturbing report—the second in six months—not only details some of these egregious abuses, but it documents obstruction that prevented the inspector general from conducting a full investigation."

This story was updated with additional comment.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.