Grassley Helps Restore Whistleblower Following Severe Retaliation at Biden ATF

Grassley Helps Restore Whistleblower Following Severe Retaliation at Biden ATF

WASHINGTON - Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), co-founder of the Senate Whistleblower Protection Caucus, has successfully secured new employment and a financial settlement for a whistleblower who was severely retaliated against by the Biden administration's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Whistleblower Afolabi Siwajuola came forward to report the ATF's illegal misclassification scheme and improper hiring practices, which cost taxpayers at least $20 million. This is the 16^th whistleblower resolution Grassley has successfully secured under President Trump's second term so far.

"Mr. Siwajuola compared his experience as a whistleblower at the Biden ATF as 'on the same level, and some days worse,' than his time serving in the U.S. Army in Baghdad. I was proud to fight for him throughout this process, and I'm thankful for the Trump administration's efforts, including current ATF leadership, to provide him the money and the employment opportunity he deserves," Grassley said. "Our country owes a debt of gratitude to Mr. Siwajuola for his service as both a soldier and a whistleblower. I hope his courage in stepping forward encourages more patriotic men and women to speak out against waste, fraud and abuse."

"I thank Senator Grassley for his unwavering support over the years. He truly is the patron saint of whistleblowers." Siwajuola said.

As part of the Grassley-brokered agreement, at Siwajuola's request, he will be transferred out of ATF to another Department of Justice component agency to a position at his current grade and pay scale. Siwajuola will also receive a financial settlement in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and a monetary employee recognition award in the thousands of dollars.

Siwajuola disclosed he suffered years of severe retaliation after reporting the Biden ATF for:

• Illegally misclassifying human resources and admin positions as law enforcement;
• Lowering the qualifying standards for ATF special agent and industry operations investigator applicants to meet the demands of a hiring surge; and
• Pressuring ATF employees to approve certain applicants who failed to meet basic qualification requirements for special agent and industry operations investigator positions, especially applicants with relationships with past or current ATF employees.

Despite the Biden administration's persistent retaliation against Siwajuola, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) presented him with the 2023 Public Servant Award, highlighting his work to bring "light to ATF's longstanding (and illegal) practice of deliberately misclassifying upper-level law enforcement positions." In August 2025, OSC also recommended ATF provide Siwajuola a monetary award for his "significant contributions to uncovering-and thereby ending-long-standing, systemic violations of law resulting in millions of dollars in government waste." After good faith negotiations with current ATF leadership, the ATF agreed to the terms Siwajuola sought.

In September 2025, Grassley called on the Trump DOJ and ATF to immediately halt all retaliation against Siwajuola, fully and fairly investigate Siwajuola's whistleblower retaliation allegations, hold the bureaucrats who retaliated against Siwajuola accountable and follow OSC's recommendation to reward Siwajuola for saving millions of taxpayer dollars.

Overview of Retaliation Against Siwajuola:

According to Siwajuola, Biden ATF officials - including former ATF Director Steven Dettelbach and former ATF Deputy Director Marvin Richardson - waged an internal campaign against him to ruin his career, reputation and livelihood as punishment for making legally protected whistleblower disclosures.

The retaliation against Siwajuola included ostracism, intimidation, negative performance reviews, demeaning comments, retaliatory investigations and demotions. The Biden administration also assigned Siwajuola to report to Ralph Bittelari, then-Chief of the ATF Human Resources Operations Division, who was one of the individuals Siwajuola reported for actively engaging in the misclassification scheme.

In June 2022, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigated alleged threats made against Siwajuola following his whistleblower disclosures. During an interview, an ATF witness told FBI agents that an ATF special agent had said Siwajuola had "a mark on his back." Additionally, the ATF witness stated concerns that, if Grassley's staff were to contact the witnesses and the witness spoke openly about the ATF, the witness would lose their job. The FBI referred the alleged threats to the ATF's Internal Affairs Division (IAD) later that month, but Siwajuola alleges no one from IAD followed up with him about the investigation.

According to Siwajuola, the ATF IAD last year opened a retaliatory investigation into him after he declined to appoint an employee to a GS-14 Human Resources position which they weren't qualified to hold.

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