Enemies of the Administrative State

RealClear Politics ^ | 7 Jan, 2024 | Benjamin Weingarten

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Amid allegations from conservative lawmakers and activists that Washington, D.C.’s most powerful agencies have been weaponized against their critics, one organization has not only played a key role in helping marshal evidence of such malfeasance, but found itself at the center of an emerging government targeting scandal that would seem to only further substantiate the claims of administrative state critics.

That organization is Empower Oversight Whistleblowers & Research. It has represented whistleblowers at the heart of some of the most consequential and contentious congressional investigations in recent years, touching on matters ranging from the impeachment inquiry into President Biden, to alleged FBI inflation of the domestic terror threat.

In a perhaps telling response to these efforts, the nonprofits’ whistleblowing clients have faced not only alleged reprisals from their government employers but also condemnation from Democrats in Congress and skepticism from media outlets that have often uncritically supported whistleblowers.

Recently, evidence has come to light suggesting the Justice Department spied on one of Empower Oversight’s principals while he was serving as a congressional investigator tasked with probing DOJ malfeasance. The man in question, Empower Oversight founder and chairman Jason Foster, is seeking to shed light on this conduct.

Foster launched the watchdog group in July 2021 for the purpose of “helping insiders safely and legally report problems to the proper authorities and … to hold those authorities accountable for fixing them.” Its lawyers help whistleblowers come forward, use the Freedom of Information Act to obtain documents, and when necessary, litigate “so that Americans can confront abuses of authority.”

Foster formed Empower Oversight after accumulating years of experience conducting congressional investigations often built on facilitating protected disclosures from federal employees – including as a top staffer for Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican.

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No enemies on the left. All on the right are enemies of the state. Different rules apply. Different justice systems apply.

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