Robert J. MacLean | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | March 8, 1970 Torrejón Air Base, Madrid, Spain |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Service/ |  United States Air Force |
| Years of service | U.S. Air Force: 1988–1992 United States Border Patrol Agent: 1996-2001 U.S. Federal Air Marshal: 2001-2006, 2015-2019 |
| Rank | Senior Airman |
| Unit | 44th Strategic Missile Wing |
Robert J. MacLean (born March 8, 1970, in Torrejon Air Base, Spain) is a former United States Federal Air Marshal and whistleblower. [1]
MacLean served in the U.S. Air Force from 1988 to 1992. After his discharge, MacLean entered the United States Border Patrol as a border patrol agent. MacLean was recruited by the Federal Aviation Administration's Federal Air Marshal program immediately after the September 11 attacks. MacLean was in the first air marshal class to graduate after the September 11, 2001 attacks. After subsequently hiring a significant number of new air marshals, the FAA program was moved under the new Department of Homeland Security's Transportation Security Administration and called the Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS).
On July 28, 2003, MacLean disclosed to MSNBC a proposed TSA operational plan that he believed would have reduced aviation security: removing air marshals from long distance, nonstop flights to save on hotel costs. [2]
MacLean said he previously brought his concerns to his TSA managers and a Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General field agent, but was rebuffed, leading him to make contact with national media. MacLean was quoted, anonymously, along with other unnamed sources, in a story written by Brock N. Meeks, chief Washington correspondent for MSNBC.com. [3] [4]
TSA first denied that air marshals would have been shifted, but the morning after MacLean's disclosure, the agency dropped the plan. [5]
In 2005, MacLean appeared on NBC Nightly News to criticize a TSA dress code that he believed made it too easy to identify air marshals. While the appearance was supposed to be anonymous, MacLean's voice wasn't distorted, and he was identified by TSA officials. MacLean then admitted to being the source of the 2003 disclosure as well. [6]
MacLean was fired by the TSA on April 11, 2006, on the grounds that he disclosed prohibited security information. On August 31, 2006, more than six months after he was fired, the TSA retroactively marked MacLean's July 2003 disclosure as being Sensitive Security Information, an unclassified information category. [7]
MacLean appealed this decision to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), but after the TSA issued its August 31, 2008 "Final Order on Sensitive Security Information," the agency argued that the MSPB had no jurisdiction to challenge an "Agency Order." The MSPB Administrative Judge dismissed the appeal without prejudice so MacLean could challenge the Agency Order in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. [8] On September 16, 2008, a Ninth Circuit panel ruled that the Transportation Security Administration was within its authority to retroactively classify the information as SSI, but found that MacLean could contest his termination before the MSPB under the authority of the Whistleblower Protection Act by arguing that he had a "good-faith belief" that the information did not qualify as "sensitive security information." [9]
On June 22, 2009, a full MSPB panel declared that MacLean was not protected under the Whistleblower Protection Act. [10] On May 12, 2010, MSPB administrative law judge Franklin M. Kang issued an Initial Decision to uphold MacLean's removal. [11] MacLean appealed the decision to a 3-member appellate MSPB panel in Washington DC, [12] but on July 25, 2011, the full panel denied all of MacLean's Whistleblower Protection Act defenses and affirmed the TSA's decision to terminate him.
In 2013, a unanimous panel of three United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit judges ruled in favor of MacLean, instructing the MSPB to reassess whether his disclosure qualified for whistleblower protection. [13] The federal government appealed the Federal Circuit's decision to the Supreme Court of the United States. [14] In January 2015, the Supreme Court upheld the Federal Circuit's decision, ruling that MacLean could pursue a whistleblower defense before the MSPB. [15]
In the wake of the Supreme Court decision, the MSPB remanded McLean's case back to judge Kang for a new hearing, and on May 8, 2015, MacLean was retroactively reinstated by the Department of Homeland Security. [16] [17] Kang formally designated MacLean a whistleblower in November 2015. [6] In March 2019 MacLean was fired again by the TSA, on the basis of allegations including inappropriate posts on a message board for air marshals and lying about how he obtained information about potential witnesses against him. [18]
The False Claims Act (FCA) is an American federal law that imposes liability on persons and companies who defraud governmental programs. It is the federal government's primary litigation tool in combating fraud against the government. The law includes a qui tam provision that allows people who are not affiliated with the government, called "relators" under the law, to file actions on behalf of the government. This is informally called "whistleblowing", especially when the relator is employed by the organization accused in the suit. Persons filing actions under the Act stand to receive a portion of any recovered damages.
The Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the supervision of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
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The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989, 5 U.S.C. 2302(b)(8)-(9), Pub.L. 101-12 as amended, is a United States federal law that protects federal whistleblowers who work for the government and report the possible existence of an activity constituting a violation of law, rules, or regulations, or mismanagement, gross waste of funds, abuse of authority or a substantial and specific danger to public health and safety. A federal agency violates the Whistleblower Protection Act if agency authorities take retaliatory personnel action against any employee or applicant because of disclosure of information by that employee or applicant.
Sensitive Security Information (SSI) is a category of sensitive but unclassified information under the United States government's information sharing and control rules. SSI is information obtained in the conduct of security activities whose public disclosure would, in the judgement of specified government agencies, harm transportation security, be an unwarranted invasion of privacy, or reveal trade secrets or privileged or confidential information. SSI is governed by Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), parts 15 and 1520.
The Government Accountability Project (GAP) is a nonprofit whistleblower protection and advocacy organization in the United States. It was founded in 1977.
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Sherry Chen is an American hydrologist who worked in the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Wilmington, Ohio. She was accused of spying and arrested in October 2014. In March 2015, federal prosecutors dropped all charges against her without explanation before the trial began. Even with the case dropped, Chen was fired from her job in March 2016 for many of the same reasons that she was originally prosecuted for. In October 2016, Chen filed a case of wrongful employment termination to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). In April 2018, MSPB issued a decision stating that Chen was "a victim of gross injustice" and ordered the Department Of Commerce to give her job back with back pay. In June 2018, DOC filed an appeal of the MSPB decision, but this has been delayed. In January 2019, with her case in an indefinite limbo, Chen's legal team filed a civil lawsuit against the U.S. government for the malicious prosecution and false arrest in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. The case was settled on Nov. 10th, 2022. Ms Chen was awarded $550,000 up front, followed by $1.25 million to be paid out by the US government over the next 10 years.
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