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Remember the Gerald Walpin affair? Republican Sen. Charles Grassley does. Walpin was the inspector general of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), the organization that runs the AmeriCorps service program. In June 2009, Walpin received a call from Norman Eisen, who was then the Special Counsel to the President for Ethics and Government Reform. Eisen told Walpin he had an hour to either resign or be fired. Eisen's call appeared to violate the 2008 Inspectors General Reform Act, which is designed to protect inspectors general from political interference. The Act requires the president to give Congress 30 days'...

The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has rejected fired AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin's lawsuit seeking reinstatement to his job. In a ruling issued Tuesday morning, the three-judge panel -- one appointed by the first President Bush, another appointed by President Clinton, and the third appointed by the second President Bush -- agreed with a lower-court ruling that Walpin does not have a "clear and indisputable right" to his former job. In June 2009, Walpin was the inspector general for the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees the AmeriCorps service program. He had...

WASHINGTON – Fired Inspector General Gerald Walpin is asking that his lawsuit challenging his abrupt and apparently illegal dismissal by the Obama administration be reinstated – and he wants a new judge assigned to the case. A Washington Times editorial published Sept. 1 suggests that District Judge Richard W. Roberts has not presided over Walpin's case with professional impartiality. The editorial details extensive personal and professional ties between Roberts and Obama Attorney General Eric Holder, the boss of the Department of Justice lawyers defending the administration against Walpin's suit. ~snip~ Roberts dismissed Walpin's suit on June 17 of this year,...

Gerald Walpin, whose lawsuit to win back his job as inspector general overseeing the Americorps program was dismissed two weeks ago, has filed an appeal in the case. Walpin, who was fired by President Barack Obama during his dogged efforts to investigate Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, asked the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.,...

A federal judge in Washington has dismissed the wrongful-termination lawsuit filed by Gerald Walpin, the AmeriCorps inspector general who was fired last year by President Obama.  And not just dismissed; if the decision by U.S. District Judge Richard Roberts stands, in the future the White House will be able fire other inspectors general as it fired Walpin without fear of legal consequences. The law requires the president to give Congress 30 days’ notice, plus an explanation, before firing an inspector general, but Walpin was summarily dismissed by the White House without notice to Congress or explanation on June 10, 2009. ...

A federal agency inspector general fired last year by President Barack Obama amid claims of bizarre and incompetent behavior, Gerald Walpin, has lost the first round in his legal bid to win back his job.On Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Roberts threw out a lawsuit Walpin brought in an attempt to be restored to his position at the Corporation for National and Community Service, which runs Americorps and other programs. Walpin has claimed that his firing was political retaliation for his opposition to wasteful spending by the agency and for his aggressive investigation of a friend of Obama, Sacramento Mayor and former...

One year to the day after illegally firing AmeriCorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin, the Obama administration is scrambling to ward off further embarrassments related to the case. On Friday, Mr. Walpin's lawsuit for reinstatement moved forward another step. For this tempest to be raging a full year later shows how badly the administration botched the situation from the start. On June 11, 2009, President Obama fired Mr. Walpin without explanation to Congress despite having co-sponsored a law as senator that required such an explanation before an inspector general could be dismissed. The most public dispute between the administration and Mr....

Only in the Obama administration would a public official sanctioned for a form of malfeasance be honored as a speaker by the same organization that sanctioned him. It helps, of course, when he is a self-proclaimed Friend of the First Couple. It also doesn't hurt that the administration already found it politically convenient to fire the inspector general, Gerald Walpin, who blew the whistle on his misdeeds.Still, the public should consider it a brazen affront for this administration to feature Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson as a key speaker at a major conference sponsored later this month by the Corporation for...

Republican senators ought to place an open and immediate hold upon the nomination of Jon A. Hatfield as inspector general of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). The legislative hold is necessary not to question Mr. Hatfield's fitness for the job, but to insist that the job itself should not yet be deemed open. The former inspector general (IG), the improperly dismissed Gerald Walpin, filed a motion in court May 20 to force a judge to stop ignoring his lawsuit for reinstatement. Until he receives his day in court, no replacement should be confirmed. President Obama dismissed the...

So, I’m asking. What’s happening with Gerald Walpin’s lawsuit against the Obama administration? Walpin was the former inspector general overseeing the “Corporation for National and Community Service,” the entity that runs AmeriCorps. His job was to detect and eradicate fraud and waste in the spending of nearly one billion taxpayer dollars. Last June, Walpin was suddenly fired by the Obama administration. Now why would Obama do that? Coincidentally (yes, I’m tongue-in-cheek here) Walpin and his able staff of fraud detectors were at the time completing an investigation into suspected misuse of nearly one million taxpayer dollars granted to St....

An updated investigation report on the scandal known as "Walpingate" adds fuel to the suspicion that President Obama may have fired Gerald Walpin, an independent inspector general, as an illegal act of political cronyism and revenge. "Throughout our investigation of Mr. Walpin's removal, the White House has repeatedly communicated that the president was not motivated by inappropriate political reasons," said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., one of the authors of the updated report. "The fact is Gerald Walpin led an aggressive investigation of a political ally of President Obama that successfully recovered taxpayer dollars. While firing an investigator who uncovered the...

Lawyers learn early that if they are in danger of losing a case, their best strategy is to delay it. With the help of a friendly judge, that seems to be the Obama administration's strategy in the case of fired AmeriCorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin. It is past time for the case to move forward. Mr. Walpin was fired in June after releasing two reports critical of close allies of President Obama's. As a senator, Mr. Obama was a leading co-sponsor of a 2008 law requiring that inspectors general receive 30 days' notice before being fired and that Congress receive...

Biggest Misreported/Unreported Stories of 2009   6.  Van Jones ResignationAppointed the Green Jobs Czar by Obama, Van Jones came under attack (mostly by Glen Beck) for being an advocate for Marxism and signing a petition that suggested the US government was involved in the 9-11 terrorist’s attacks.   After several weeks and numerous controversial tapes, Van Jones resigned at midnight on a Saturday.  The mainstream media barely touched the story, which was only a blip on some of the Sunday news shows after his resignation. 5.  ACORN TapesJames O’Keefe and Hannah Giles, investigative journalists, posed as a pimp and a prostitute to...

White House Blocks Testimony by First Lady's Ex-Top Aide in Walpin Case Republican efforts to interview a former top aide to Michelle Obama in the controversial case of a fired inspector general have been stymied by the White House, the the top Republican looking into the case said Tuesday Republican efforts to interview a former top aide to Michelle Obama in the controversial case of a fired inspector general have been stymied by the White House, the top Republican looking into the case said Tuesday. The White House counsel's office has blocked Republican investigators from interviewing Jackie Norris, former chief...

Congressional Republicans raised new concerns this week about the Obama administration's firing of Gerald Walpin, who served as inspector general for the Corporation for National and Community Service. GOP lawmakers said White House visitors logs contradict statements made by the former chairman of CNCS, the agency that oversees AmeriCorps.

Since this is our Christmas show, I'm only going to spend the first half hour on the madness that is America, 2009. Walpingate, Climategate, Jenningsgate, the Health care debacle... nah... we've got to find some sneaky subversive way to forget, if briefly, the insanity, and find something that can make us happy and give us hope. I call this conspiracy Jinglegate. Merry Christmas call-in! (347) 327-9710

No inspector general can unearth corruption without access to his office, computer or staff. An "administrative leave" putting an IG in that position has the same effect, for all intents and purposes, as an immediate firing. That's the basic logic behind former Inspector General Gerald Walpin's lawsuit demanding at least temporary reinstatement to his job as watchdog at the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). New revelations about the case from two lawmakers indicate that there is good reason to suspect duplicity from those who helped force Mr. Walpin's overnight removal in June. In the past 10 days, two...

Complete with a raft of documents and exhibits, fired AmeriCorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin on Wednesday filed a motion for summary judgment in his lawsuit demanding reinstatement to his job -- his own motion not even waiting for the judge to rule on the Obama administration's motion to dismiss the case without hearing or trial. A close perusal of his motion, affidavits, and exhibits suggests to me, for the first time, that this case has potential to reach the Supreme Court regardless of how the lower court rules.... Thus we get a glimpse of the tangled web of interests and...

The Obama Administration remains addicted to the "Chicago Way" of hardball politics. One of the clearest examples was last June's firing by the White House of Gerald Walpin, inspector general of the government service program AmeriCorps. Mr. Walpin complained at the time his ouster was due to his dogged investigation of misspent AmeriCorps money in a program run by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a major Obama backer. Mr. Walpin's firing by the White House was done in direct contravention of a 2008 law meant to protect inspectors general from political retribution. Mr. Obama himself co-sponsored the law as a Senator....

Even as congressional investigators demolish White House explanations for its firing last summer of a key inspector general, new documents show that an entire second area of misleading administration statements has gone largely unexplored. Each new revelation in the case suggests that Gerald Walpin, the fired IG for the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), ought to be reinstated to his job. We'll get to that second area of dispute in a few moments; it's a doozy. First, though, because this is all rather confusing, a review of the particulars is in order. ~snip~ Yet just two days after...

Oversight: After an unjust firing and campaign of character assassination, the former AmeriCorps inspector general has been cleared of acting improperly. Now where does he go to get his job and reputation back? On June 10, Gerald Walpin was fired with one hour's notice as the watchdog of AmeriCorps in violation of a federal law requiring Congress to be given a heads-up 30 days in advance. He then fell victim to a campaign of character assassination. When pressed for a reason for the sudden and improper dismissal of a federal watchdog, the White House responded with a letter to Sens....

Rhee's June 2008 visit to Walpin's office wasn't her first talk with him. Shortly before that, she had called Walpin, apparently to see how the investigation was going. It was widely reported at the time that Rhee was planning to include St. Hope in a group of educational organizations that would be hired to run 10 of the District's most troubled high schools. "Because she knew we were investigating Johnson, she called me to find out whether there would be anything coming out that she should take into account in deciding whether to contract with Johnson," Walpin says. "I told...

Did the White House overlook allegations of sexual misconduct against Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson prior to his election, saving the city millions of federal stimulus dollars? "The money was given to St. Hope to finance AmeriCorps members, who are basically volunteers that they call members, to do tutoring in schools among disadvantaged students. It's a great program," Walpin told Eric Hogue of Hogue News in July. "My investigation found they didn't use the AmeriCorps members for tutoring; they used them to drive Mr. Johnson around, to wash his car, to do all sorts of janitorial and administrative work which the...

On Friday, The Washington Examiner's chief political correspondent, Byron York, had another stunning report on the scandal involving the firing of Americorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin. Earlier this year, Walpin was fired in what appears to be a politically motivated attempt by Democrats to silence his investigation into allegations of misuse of $800,000 in federal funds by Sacramento mayor and former NBA star Kevin Johnson. The funds were provided by the federal Americorps program to St. Hope, a nonprofit school that Johnson then headed. York's latest blockbuster is his reporting of a congressional report prepared by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa,...

More allegations that Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson was protected by the Obama Administration released today. Did the Obama Administration cover-up sexual misconduct charges for Mayor Johnson, in order to save his election, and the Capitol City millions of federal dollars? A joint report released today by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the Senate Finance Committee Republican offers new insight into the political maneuvering at the White House to remove the Inspector General for the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) Gerald Walpin and revealed explosive allegations (see pages 24-30 of Just Released Walpin Referral Document) of...

A GOP congressional report accuses the White House of doing favors for Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA star and prominent ally of President Barack Obama. The report was spearheaded by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. 
 The investigation also found evidence that D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee handled “damage control” after allegations surfaced of sexual misconduct against Johnson, her now-fiancé. The probe was launched after an AmeriCorps inspector general, Gerald Walpin, was abruptly fired...

The investigation began after the AmeriCorps inspector general, Gerald Walpin, received reports that Johnson had misused some of the $800,000 in federal AmeriCorps money provided to St. Hope, a non-profit school that Johnson headed for several years. Walpin was looking into charges that AmeriCorps-paid volunteers ran personal errands for him, washed his car, and took part in political activities. In the course of investigating those allegations, the congressional report says, Walpin's investigators were told that Johnson had made inappropriate advances toward three young women involved in the St. Hope program -- and that Johnson offered at least one of those...

A congressional investigation of the volunteer organization AmeriCorps contains charges that D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee handled "damage control" after allegations of sexual misconduct against her now fiance, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA star and a prominent ally of President Obama, The Washington Examiner has learned. The charges are contained in a report prepared by Sen. Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, and Rep. Darrell Issa, ranking Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The investigation began after the AmeriCorps inspector general, Gerald Walpin, received reports that Johnson had misused some...

Byron York, Washington Examiner:A congressional investigation of the volunteer organization AmeriCorps contains charges that D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee handled "damage control" after allegations of sexual misconduct against her now fiance, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA star and a prominent ally of President Obama, The Washington Examiner has learned. The charges are contained in a report prepared by Sen. Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, and Rep. Darrell Issa, ranking Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.The investigation began after the AmeriCorps inspector general, Gerald Walpin, received reports that Johnson had...

The case of Gerald Walpin, the controversially fired inspector general for the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), continues to raise questions about what the Obama administration is hiding. Two new items and one previously overlooked item are of interest in the case. First, Mr. Walpin filed a legal brief on Nov. 6 that convincingly refutes the arguments in a White House motion to dismiss the lawsuit he had filed demanding that he be reinstated to his job. Second, White House officials met on Tuesday with staff of Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, and narrowed but did not...

AmeriCorps Inspector General Shredded White House Documents at Request of Agency’s Spokeswoman Thursday, November 12, 2009 By Fred Lucas, Staff Writer (CNSNews.com) – The acting inspector general of AmeriCorps said he shredded White House documents at the request of an agency press spokeswoman that pertained to the controversial firing of the previous inspector general, who was ousted after investigating a political ally of President Obama. The e-mail message from agency spokeswoman Ranit Schmelzer seemed urgent, as she wrote: “WH documents were sent in error. Can you please destroy them? And can you confirm you receive this e-mail?” Acting IG Kenneth...

Federal officials said Tuesday there was not enough evidence to support allegations that the e-mails were intentionally deleted while Johnson's nonprofit organization was being probed by federal Inspector General Gerald Walpin. The decision appears to put to rest a controversy that has dogged Johnson since Walpin's investigation into St. HOPE's use of federal grant money first became public in April 2008. "We're pleased that the FBI has determined what we knew all along – that there was no intentional wrongdoing by the mayor or anyone at St. HOPE," said mayoral spokesman Steve Maviglio. "It's time for this book to be...

When it comes to discussing controversial issues, the Obama administration's idea of dialogue is a curiously one-way affair. According to an Oct. 26 administration court filing, a lawsuit by fired AmeriCorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin should be dismissed without a trial because the White House already has participated in the "political dialogue" with Congress required by the statute governing IG dismissals. It's odd, then, that the administration continues stonewalling Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, long a champion of independent IGs. On June 10, the Obama administration fired Mr. Walpin, without explanation, just after he filed two reports alleging White...

President Obama's nomination of a major campaign fundraiser as ambassador to Spain has been delayed in the Senate over questions about whether the White House is withholding information from lawmakers about the abrupt firing of a government watchdog official. The nominee, Alan Solomont, served from April until recently as chairman of the Corporation for National and Community Service, whose former inspector general, Gerald Walpin, was fired by the White House on June 10. Mr. Solomont, a Massachusetts health industry entrepreneur, helped raise at least $500,000 for Mr. Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and was among a group of top fundraisers, elected...

Well before Gerald Walpin was fired as the inspector general of AmeriCorps, government documents show that he and the agency’s management did not get along, to say the least. Documents obtained by CNSNews.com through a Freedom of Information Act request, including e-mails, letters and memos, demonstrate a confrontational relationship between the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), the agency that runs AmeriCorps, and its inspector general, whose ouster in June prompted questions from Congress. A corporation board member wanted to “let the record reflect” what he says was Walpin’s confusion at a Mar. 20 board meeting, the member’s notes...

When last we left Gerald Walpin, the unfairly fired inspector general for the Corporation for National and Community Service, he had filed a lawsuit on July 17 protesting his dismissal. He submitted technical amendments to his complaint on July 24, and the government was supposed to respond within 60 days. Seventy-five days later, the government still is stonewalling. Justice delayed is justice denied. Government lawyers Tony West, Channing Phillips, Susan Rudy and Kathryn Wyer filed for an extension until Oct. 26, explaining that they were only "recently assigned this case." It's odd, though, that when it suits the White House's...

Republican Sen. Charles Grassley has blocked the ambassadorial nomination of Alan Solomont, currently chairman of the board of the government agency that oversees AmeriCorps, in retaliation for what Grassley says is the administration's stonewalling of Congress over documents relating to the firing of AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin. Specifically, Grassley has sought, and been denied, information relating to the White House's role in the decision to fire Walpin. Solomont, a major Democratic donor, is chairman of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which includes AmeriCorps. His term ends in October, and President Obama has nominated him to be U.S....

First it was I.G. Walpin who was investigating BO 's supporter on the misused of Americorp funds. Now it is I.G. Weiderhold for investigating Amtrak’s activities. The Inspector General Act, amended last year and CO-SPONSORED by Barack Obama to: require the President to notify Congress in writing within 30 days the reasons for removing an Inspector General from office. Did Obama knowingly break the law on this one or did TOTUS forget to tell him he couldn't do it.

I just have to wonder what kind of uproar and front page news stories would be coming out daily if the Walpin/Johnson IG Firing Story had happened during Bush's watch. You know the answer to that question. We would be blasted by the story daily, for weeks on end. But under the Obama administration the MSM doesn't utter a peep. Except for Byron York reporting in The Washington Examiner that is. Before I get to his story let's do a recap of the scandal, since it's been weeks and weeks since the story came out. There are four players in...

This nasty administration spent much time going after Gerald Walpin, who until a few weeks ago was the inspector general for AmeriCorps. Walpin's claim was that he was fired because he made the mistake of Investigation a friend of Obama (FOB), Kevin Johnson former NBA star who is now mayor of Sacramento, California, for the misuse of AmeriCorps funds. Because he was investigating the president's friends, Walpin, whose position as an inspector general is supposed to be protected from political appointees and the White House, was fired. Pressed for a reasoning for the dismissal the Administration said the IG seemed...

After seven weeks of trying, investigators looking into President Barack Obama’s abrupt firing of AmeriCorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin are still unable to answer the most basic question of the whole affair: Why did the president do it?

Just six months into his presidency, President Barack Obama's administration is the target of a federal lawsuit, and that by a civil servant who alleges he was dismissed from his post in violation of the requirements of a law that Barack Obama himself once sponsored in the Senate. Yet despite all this, the July 21 Washington Post print edition failed to carry the story, directing readers with this 39-word teaser atop page A15 (The Fed Page) to a Post blog: Former Inspector General Files Suit: Gerald Walpin, an inspector general who was fired last month by the Obama administration, has...

Gerald Walpin, the former Inspector General for the Corporation for National and Community Service whom President Obama took the unusual step of firing last month, filed a lawsuit against the CNCS on Friday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia The suit seeks to force "to reinstate Mr. Walpin as the Inspector General and to declare unlawful and ineffective the efforts to date to terminate him from his office." In addition, the suit seeks that Walpin be awarded "costs and legal fees associated with this action" as well as any "further relief as may be appropriate in this...

"Staff doesn't speak for the committee," a source on Capitol Hill explained last week. "The committee speaks for the committee." That's the practical meaning of Senate Rule 29, which has been invoked regarding the Homeland Security and Government Oversight Committee investigation into last month's firing of AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin. The committee's chairman, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, is entirely within his prerogative to protect the integrity of the investigation via Rule 29, which reads, in part:

Gerald Walpin has not taken his dismissal as Inspector General for the Corporation for National and Community Service lying down yet, and apparently doesn’t plan to go quietly soon, either. Walpin filed a lawsuit against the CNCS for unlawful termination. He accuses the parent agency of AmeriCorps, and indirectly the administration, of politicizing his office and removing him illegally because he refused to agree to a settlement in a fraud case that let an Obama backer off the hook and with access to federal funding: Gerald Walpin, the AmeriCorps inspector general who was summarily fired in June amid controversy over...

By: Byron York Chief Political Correspondent 07/18/09 9:45 AM EDT Gerald Walpin, the AmeriCorps inspector general who was summarily fired in June amid controversy over his investigation of a politically-connected supporter of President Obama, has filed suit alleging that the firing was "unlawful," "politically driven," "procedurally defective" and "a transparent and clumsily-conducted effort to circumvent the protections" given to inspectors general under the Inspectors General Reform Act of 2008.

Gerald Walpin, the AmeriCorps inspector general who was summarily fired in June amid controversy over his investigation of a politically-connected supporter of President Obama, has filed suit alleging that the firing was "unlawful," "politically driven," "procedurally defective" and "a transparent and clumsily-conducted effort to circumvent the protections" given to inspectors general under the Inspectors General Reform Act of 2008. Walpin's suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is against the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees AmeriCorps. Also named are Nicola Goren, the acting CEO of the Corporation, Frank Trinity, its general counsel, and...

The government watchdog President Obama fired last month for allegedly being "confused" and "disoriented" filed a lawsuit Friday to reclaim his job, the Washington Times reported. Gerald Walpin, who was the inspector general for the Corporation for National and Community Service until President Obama removed him, argues in the lawsuit that the firing was politically motivated and broke a 2008 law governing how watchdogs can be dismissed, the newspaper said.

Petition: We, the undersigned, respectfully demand that the Judiciary Committees of the United States House and Senate investigate the firing by President Obama of Inspector General Gerald Walpin. Sign Petition at: gopetition.com/online/28746.html

Then the stonewalling got worse. On June 30, White House counsel Gregory B. Craig warned Mr. Grassley, "These questions implicate core executive branch confidentiality interests." On July 6, corporation general counsel Frank R. Trinity repeatedly refused to answer congressional investigators' questions about the White House's communications with his office regarding any review of Mr. Walpin's performance. "It's a White House prerogative," Mr. Trinity told staff members, according to multiple sources. Asked if he was somehow asserting "executive privilege" -- a privilege not his to claim -- Mr. Trinity repeated his "White House prerogative" line. Told that no such prerogative exists...