I'd say he's right on this. They've weakened their case by waiting so long to terminate a person they put on paid leave a year and a half ago. If the charges were provable, and they had evidence to support it, why wait that long, and pay him his salary in the meantime? Did they think he'd eventually change his mind, and roll over to their way of thinking?
I did some searching online. Found that NETU is the union that represents federal employees, and employees of the ATF are members of this union. I'm assuming that means agents too. I find it strange that there has been no mention of union representation while any of this was going on. Surely the reason they put him on paid leave was that it is part of the contract agreement with the union. If there was no union representation, they could have canned him a long time ago.
I'm assuming that their union rights are similar to the law enforcement union I belonged to. At some point, the feds should have presented Cefalu with paperwork listing specific charges, and provide statements as to his actions related to those charges. This would have been done with union representation present. During that year and a half, he should have at least had some kind of hearing where witnesses were called for both sides. Then an arbitrator would weigh the testimony/evidence, and render a decision. Cefalu would have been provided union representation during this hearing, and he could also have had legal representation provided by the union, or pay for his own if he chose to use someone other than the union's legal reps.
It's a bit weird that he was served termination papers in a parking lot, again without any union representation present. Any termination should have been conducted at the office he worked at, with witnesses for both sides present. And he wouldn't be required to sign any paperwork if he chose to refuse...which I hope he did. This whole thing, and the way the feds have handled it is so underhanded, and so bizarre, it's beyond imagination. Even a good fiction writer would have a hard time coming up with this scenario.
These special agents are not bargaining unit ~ rather, their job is the direct application of federal policy.
Excluding USPS, the overwhelming majority of federal employees are non-union. In, USPS, almost everyone is union. The military are non-union.
I think that should give you all the information you need to see why no union representative was present at the firing in the parking lot ~ on the other hand the Regime's agents imagine they need a safer place than their own offices to fire one of their whistle blowers.
I can attribute that only to a fear of being gunned down by their own co-workers and maybe their bosses!
All is not well in ATF.