Joseph Cuffari

Last updated
Joseph Cuffari
Joseph V. Cuffari official picture.jpg
Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security
Incumbent
Assumed office
July 25, 2019

Joseph Vincent Cuffari (born 1959) is an American government administrator who has been the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security since 2019.

Contents

He previously held positions in the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General. Cuffari was also a policy advisor to Arizona Governors Jan Brewer and Doug Ducey.

An appointee of President Donald Trump, Cuffari was found in October 2024 by an independent panel of watchdogs to committed misconduct during his tenure as inspector general of the DHS, including misleading the Senate during his nomination process. [1] When Trump became president again in January 2025, he fired a large number of inspector generals, but kept Cuffari in office. [1]

Education and early career

Cuffari was born in 1959 in Philadelphia to an Italian American family. [2] [3] He enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1977, immediately after graduating from high school. He served over 40 years in the Air Force including service on active duty, in the Air Force Reserve, and in the Arizona Air National Guard. [4] In 1984, he received a B.S. degree in business administration and management information systems from the University of Arizona. [2] [4] While on active duty, he rose to hold leadership positions in the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. [4]

Between 1993 and 2013, he worked for the Department of Justice, culminating in an assignment as the Assistant Special Agent in Charge for the Office of the Inspector General in Tucson, Arizona. [4] A 2013 investigation into Cuffari’s conduct concluded that he misled investigators and violated the inspector general manual when testifying in a civil lawsuit without approval of his superiors. [5] The report raised doubts about Cuffari recommending law firms run by his friends to a complainant in a case he had worked on. [6] The report also stated that while analyzing his government e-mail account the investigation found other items that could warrant further investigation. However, Cuffari left the position a month after the report was issued to work as policy advisor for Military and Veterans Affairs for Governors Jan Brewer and Doug Ducey of Arizona. [4] [7]

He received a M.A. in management from Webster University in 1995, and a Ph.D. in management from California Coast University in 2002, an online, for-profit university which at that time, prior to its accreditation, was characterized as a "diploma mill" by the Government Accountability Office. [4] [8] [9] In 2019, Cuffari's government bio incorrectly claimed his Ph.D. was in philosophy. [10] At the time he attended California Coast University, it was unaccredited. [9] In 2005, it received accreditation from the Distance Education Accrediting Commission. [11] During this time he also worked for the Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General. [2] [4]

DHS Inspector General

Cuffari was nominated by Donald Trump [12] and was confirmed by a voice vote [13] in the U.S. Senate as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General (IG) on July 25, 2019. [4] Upon being confirmed he pledged to continue unannounced inspections of immigration detention facilities. [14]

Cuffari rejected his staff's recommendation to investigate what role the United States Secret Service played in the forcible clearing of protesters from Lafayette Square during the Donald Trump photo op at St. John's Church in June 2020. [12]

Cuffari also sought to limit the scope of the investigation into the spread of COVID-19 within the Secret Service, which had been attributed to the Trump Re-Election Campaign's not following COVID guidelines. [15] [16] It was later reported that 881 employees of the Secret Service had been infected with COVID, more than 11% of the agency. [17]

Following Brian Murphy's September 2020 whistleblower complaint about Chad Wolf, Ken Cuccinelli, and Kirstjen Nielsen politicizing Department of Homeland Security assets to support the views of both Stephen Miller and Donald Trump, Cuffari began his inspector general (IG) investigation into alleged misconduct at Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after the November 2020 elections. [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] The DHS Office of Intelligence & Analysis released no "intelligence products specific for the January 6", 2021 attack on the Capitol. [25] On April 27, 2021, Brian Volsky, the former head of the DHS inspector general's whistleblower protection unit, filed a memo with CIGIE accusing Cuffari and James Read, who was the DHS IG counsel to Cuffari and Kristen Fredricks (who was Cuffari's DHS IG chief of staff) of mishandling Brian Murphy's complaints. [26] [27]

In December 2021, Cuffari's office learned that Secret Service text messages from the time of the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 had been deleted. Staff members of his office planned to contact the respective offices, collect the phones and use data recovery specialists to try to recover the messages. However, Cuffari decided not to review any of the phones. He informed Congress in July 2022 in a letter that the text messages were lost. Cuffari learned in February 2022 that text messages of former acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf and acting DHS Deputy Ken Cuccinelli were lost in a reset after they left the DHS. He did not investigate the deletion of these records. [28] [29] In August 2022, the chairs of the Oversight and Reform Committee and Committee on Homeland Security accused Cuffari of hampering the Congressional investigation into the January 6 attack on the US Capitol and made public a letter he wrote refusing to share documents related to the investigation or to allow members of his office to be interviewed. [30] [31] [32]

In October 2022, NPR reported that the majority of lawyers in the Office of Counsel had left. The departures often stemmed from the lawyers' unease with how Joseph Cuffari managed the watchdog role. Earlier in 2022, the Senate Judiciary Committee's top leaders raised concerns that Cuffari downplayed widespread reports of sexual harassment and misconduct at DHS. In May 2022, Cuffari issued a scathing response, shifting the blame onto lower-level employees in his agency. [33]

In October 2024, the Integrity Committee of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency released a redacted "Report of Findings" on the IG's office at DHS. [34]

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References

  1. 1 2 "Trump ousts at least 14 independent inspectors general in late-night purge". The Washington Post. 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 "HSGAC Biographical Questions for Executive Nominees" (PDF). U.S. Congress. 2018-11-21. pp. 30ff. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-07-30. Retrieved 2019-10-22.
  3. ↑ "Cuffari, Joseph V. 1959-". WorldCat.org. OCLC. Archived from the original on November 13, 2022. Retrieved October 12, 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Meet the IG". U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General. Archived from the original on 2019-11-08. Retrieved 2019-10-22.
  5. ↑ "Homeland Security watchdog previously accused of misleading investigators, report says". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286. Archived from the original on 2022-08-14. Retrieved 2022-08-16.
  6. ↑ Ochoa, Carol (April 19, 2013). "Investigation regarding Assistant Special Agent in Charge Joseph Cuffari, Tucson Area Office, Investigations Division" (PDF). www.House.gov. House Oversight Committee. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 5, 2022. Retrieved August 6, 2022.
  7. ↑ Rein, Lisa; Leonning, Carol; Sacchetti, Maria (August 3, 2022). "Homeland Security watchdog previously accused of misleading investigators". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 4, 2022. Retrieved August 4, 2022.
  8. ↑ "Testimony : Diploma Mills Are Easily Created and Some Have Issued Bogus Degrees to Federal Employees at Government Expense" (PDF). Gao.gov. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 21, 2022. Retrieved July 22, 2022.
  9. 1 2 Sanchez, Yvonne Wingett; Sacchetti, Maria; Rein, Lisa (September 15, 2022). "How DHS watchdog under fire in Jan. 6 investigation pushed to get his post". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 21, 2022. Retrieved October 12, 2022.
  10. ↑ "Meet the IG". Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Archived from the original on November 30, 2019. Retrieved 2022-08-16.
  11. ↑ "California Coast University". Distance Education and Training Council. Archived from the original on December 2, 2013. Retrieved November 20, 2022.
  12. 1 2 Leonnig, Carol D. (20 April 2021). "DHS watchdog declined to pursue investigations into Secret Service during Trump administration, documents show". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 11 June 2021. Retrieved 20 April 2021. Joseph Cuffari, the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general, rejected his staff's recommendation to investigate what role the Secret Service played in the forcible clearing of protesters from Lafayette Square on June 1, according to internal documents and two people familiar with his decision, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the discussions.
  13. ↑ "PN184 — Joseph V. Cuffari — Department of Homeland Security". United States Congress. Archived from the original on 12 August 2022. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
  14. ↑ Flores, Adolfo (2019-07-29). "Trump's New Immigration Watchdog Said He Will Conduct More Inspections On Detention Facilities". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on 2019-10-22. Retrieved 2019-10-22.
  15. ↑ Leonnig, Carol D. (20 April 2021). "DHS watchdog declined to pursue investigations into Secret Service during Trump administration, documents show". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 11 June 2021. Retrieved 20 April 2021. Cuffari told the team they should narrow the probe, and suggested only examining how the spread of the coronavirus affected the Secret Service's investigative work rather than its protection assignments. But coronavirus infections in the Secret Service were falling the hardest on agents and officers working protective roles, who were required to travel around the country to secure public rallies for Trump's campaign.
  16. ↑ Grace Hauck; Joshua Bote. "President Trump and his staff defied CDC coronavirus guidelines 27 times since Sept. 1". USA TODAY. Archived from the original on 2021-05-17. Retrieved 2021-06-22.
  17. ↑ Boak, Josh (2021-06-22). "Almost 900 Secret Service employees were infected with COVID". Assoc. Archived from the original on June 22, 2021. Retrieved June 22, 2021. Secret Service records show that 881 people on the agency payroll were diagnosed with COVID-19 between March 1, 2020 and March 9, 2021, according to documents obtained by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. More than 11% of Secret Service employees were infected.
  18. ↑ Murphy, Brian (September 8, 2020). "In the Matter of Murphy, Brian Principal Deputy Under Secretary Department of Homeland Security Office of Intelligence & Analysis Complaint" (PDF). United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 9, 2020. Retrieved September 10, 2020.
  19. ↑ Devereaux, Ryan (September 12, 2020). "BlueLeaks Documents Bolster Whistleblower Account of Intelligence Tampering at Homeland Security: The Department of Homeland Security has become an armed extension of Trumpism". The Intercept . Archived from the original on May 16, 2021. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  20. ↑ Devereaux, Ryan (July 25, 2020). "Before Portland, Trump's Shock Troops Went After Border Activists". The Intercept . Archived from the original on July 26, 2020. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  21. ↑ Wolf, Chad (September 9, 2020). "'One Mission': Acting Secretary Wolf Delivers 2020 State of the Homeland Address". Department of Homeland Security . Archived from the original on September 2, 2021. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  22. ↑ Kanno-Youngs, Zolan; Fandos, Nicholas (September 9, 2020). "D.H.S. Downplayed Threats From Russia and White Supremacists, Whistle-Blower Says: Brian Murphy, the former head of the Department of Homeland Security's intelligence division, accused senior leaders of warping the agency around President Trump's political interests". The New York Times . Archived from the original on September 10, 2020. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  23. ↑ Kanno-Youngs, Zolan; Goldman, Adam (August 1, 2020). "Homeland Security Reassigns Official Whose Office Compiled Intelligence on Journalists: Brian Murphy's office compiled reports of protesters and journalists who were covering the Trump administration's response to unrest in Portland last month". The New York Times . Archived from the original on August 1, 2020. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  24. ↑ Kanno-Youngs, Zolan; Sullivan, Eileen (July 1, 2021). "Homeland Security Watchdog Delayed Inquiry, Complaint Says: The department's inspector general delayed looking into a retaliation complaint by a former intelligence chief until after the 2020 election, according to officials and a whistle-blower". The New York Times . Archived from the original on July 1, 2021. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  25. ↑ Wise, Lindsay; Levy, Rachael (June 30, 2021). "House Approves Creation of Select Committee to Probe Jan. 6 Attack: Democrats support panel after bipartisan commission was blocked by Senate Republicans". The Wall Street Journal . Archived from the original on September 2, 2021. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  26. ↑ Zagorin, Adam; Schwellenbach, Nick (July 1, 2021). "Did Whistleblower Reprisal Help Set the Stage for a January 6 Intelligence Failure?". Project On Government Oversight (POGO) (pogo.org). Archived from the original on July 1, 2021. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  27. ↑ Volsky, Brian (April 27, 2021). "CIGIE Integrity Committee Complaint: Brian Volsky's April 27, 2021 Complaint Filed With CIGIE". CIGIE (ignet.gov). Archived from the original on September 3, 2021. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  28. ↑ "Missing: More January 6 Texts Sought by Congress". 28 July 2022. Archived from the original on 30 July 2022. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  29. ↑ Maria Sacchetti; Carol D. Leonnig (2022-07-30). "Homeland Security watchdog halted plan to recover Secret Service texts, records show". The Washington Post . Washington, D.C. ISSN   0190-8286. OCLC   1330888409. Archived from the original on 2022-07-30. Retrieved 2022-07-30.
  30. ↑ Broadwater, Luke; Sullivan, Eileen (2022-08-16). "Top Democrats Accuse Homeland Security Watchdog of Blocking Testimony in Jan. 6 Inquiry". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2022-08-16. Retrieved 2022-08-16.
  31. ↑ "Homeland Security watchdog Cuffari faces rebukes from lawmakers in missing texts case". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286. Archived from the original on 2022-08-16. Retrieved 2022-08-16.
  32. ↑ "Chairs Maloney and Thompson Demand DHS Inspector General Comply with Committees' Investigation into Handling of Erased Text Messages". House Committee on Oversight and Reform. 2022-08-16. Archived from the original on 2022-08-16. Retrieved 2022-08-16.
  33. ↑ Grisales, Claudia (2022-10-12). "DHS watchdog appointed by Trump has fueled an exodus of agency lawyers, sources say". National Public Radio. Archived from the original on 2023-04-04. Retrieved 2023-04-04.
  34. ↑ "Report of Findings for Integrity Committee Case 20-059" (PDF). Committee on Oversight and Accountability, U.S. House of Representatives, Democrats. October 2, 2024. Retrieved October 7, 2024.
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