Jay Dobyns

While preparing for a court filing I have due soon I came across this letter I composed to the OSC following an OIG investigation conducted into ATF mismanagement and corruption. It was written in October 2008. (Attached as a .pdf)

I am not a prophet but, considering that this letter was written (unbeknown to me) during the heart of Fast and Furious, it is somewhat prophetic. I had no way of knowing that the same people I was writing about were, at that time, orchestrating the biggest scandal in law enforcement history and doing so with impunity.

Curious is the OSC's conclusions delivered to President Obama. (Below) They flat out tell the President that ATF refuses to be accountable or hold any person responsible for blunders (mistakes is too kind of a word for these guys, sorry Mr. Holder). The process by which Fast and Furious came about, the people involved, the people who watched it an did nothing, and the ATF policy to deny and cover-up management's catastrophes - that has been here a long time, only in smaller doses.

It didn’t, and doesn’t, take any great intellect to know what was, is, and has been, wrong at ATF for a long time. History continues to repeat itself at ATF, usually with even greater recklessness and maliciousness. It also doesn’t take a smart guy to understand how to fix it. ATF was and can still be great. We should be. Logic, common sense and testicular fortitude need to override fear for the decision makers. There must be nothing worse to look at yourself and know you are a roll-over coward. I hope I never have to experience that.

“But Jay, you can’t say stuff like that! You can’t call out the White House and Holder on national TV! They’ll never let you win!”

They aren’t going to “let” me anything. "They" don’t get to “let” me win, "they" will fight to the death. I’ll win or lose all on my own and in spite of all the dirty traps "they" set.

Whistleblowers at ATF have, and continue to be told to shut-up-and-go-away. When they don't, they get trainwrecked with retaliation. It is happening as you read this message. Well, guess what, some of us haven't and won't. The truth never changes and even when you try to dodge it and cover it up, it always comes out. They simply cannot hide from it.

My advice to peers and friends has been that if you can live with yourself, keep it to yourself. If you can’t live with yourself by choking down the corruption, then speak out. Yes, that empowers the retaliators but how do you encourage your friends to wreck their careers and reputations knowing that no one of influence is going to support or help them? Keep quiet and keep getting paid is the path of least resistance.

Let the truth be your guide? Whistleblower protections? They are nothing more than words on a piece of paper. They are not enforced. ATF’s executives know it and take advantage of it. ATF treats the No Fear Act as a nuisance, not a law. If you do get in the fight prepare for it to be long, dirty and unjust – that is how ATF plays the game – and understand that no one’s coming to your rescue. You will win or lose all on your own and you will be forced to suffer for the truth along the way. Let’s not sugarcoat it – the powers that be will destroy you if they can.

Still want in? That’s OK, some of us will stay in the fight so the rest of us don’t have to.

OSC and OIG in 2008:

“I note with concern the absence of any corrective measures proposed to address the failure to conduct timely and thorough investigations into the death threats made against SA Dobyns. ATF does not appear to have held anyone accountable in this regard. Fully addressing the problems and failures identified in this case requires more than amending ATF policies and procedures. It requires that threats against ATF agents be taken seriously and pursued aggressively and that ATF officials at all levels cooperate to ensure the timely and comprehensive investigation of threats leveled against its own agents.” (OSC Report; Page 11; Paragraph 5)

“Notably absent from the report, however, is any statement from ATF regarding action taken to address the failure to adequately investigate the threats made against SA Dobyns.” (OSC Letter to the President of the United States; Page 2, Paragraph 2)

From Senator Charles Grassley's webpage regarding ATF's executive reorganization:

“The reassignments are positive, especially in the case of Tom Brandon who I hope can help lead this agency out of its troubles. But, I caution that rearranging the chairs on the deck, won’t make Fast and Furious go away. I also question the timing of this announcement. There is a lot of effort at the Justice Department to spin the fact that the Attorney General was less than candid before the House Judiciary Committee, and what better way to make that go away than a bureaucratic shuffle. There are a lot of questions that remain to be answered and actions that need to be explained.”

Senator Grassley totally gets it. Tom Brandon is the single best thing that could happen to ATF. He is not pro-gun or anti-gun. He is anti-violence and moreso, anti-gun-violence. He proved himself as an agent, and before my eyes on several occasions in the 90's, to be the consumate investigator. He knows what it is like to be a street agent and unlike many of his predassors, hasn't forgotten the field or devalued their insights. He is an ATF Agent through and through and has always done his job with a single-mindedness of handling America's business within the constrains of his assignments with ATF, using ATF's mission, legal jurisdiction, proper techniques and tactics as his guide. Brandon's leadership is indisputable. His willingness to serve is without question. His understanding of ATF, coupled with a love for the Bureau's employees is top shelf.

Tom Brandon is the type of boss who agents will run through a block wall for. Why? Because Brandon has run through the walls himself and knows what its like. He won't ask anyone to do anything that he hasn't done, or isn't willing to do, himself. Wow! Revolutionary concept at ATF.

Do not be afraid or shy to expect great things from Tom Brandon because he expects great things from himself. That is the kind of leader he is. Great choice Mr. Jones! You have hired on a partner that will lead with courage, compassion and brutal honesty, something that has been entirely lost on the former executives in ATF headquarters. The Agents of ATF have been held underwater for so long we're blue. Tom Brandon gives us all a big gulp of fresh air into our lungs!

Something to keep in mind is that regardless of who gets moved to where in the management realignment, it is impossible for anyone to be perfect. The new people will make some mistakes because we all do. The owning of mistakes and the effort to self-correct them is what has been missing. If George Washington, Abe Lincoln, General Schwarzkopf or Neil Armstrong was the boss they would make mistakes. True leaders hold themselves accountable, ours haven’t. Then they set out to fix their mistakes and try not to repeat them, ours haven’t.

If I could speak to Acting Director Jones - which I can’t and which is part of the reason why www.cleanupatf.org exists, employees have had no voice – I would ask him to take a hard look at the evil culture of ATF’s Chief Counsel’s Office and Internal Affairs (OPRSO). I will not speak to this from my personal perspective because I don’t want to give myself a high blood pressure brain hemorrhage today but, I will speak to it from a perspective of what I absolutely know to be true.

Chief Counsels Office is corrupt. Not every ATF attorney in that office is unethical but, some of the very significant ones – most definitely. They do not respect the complaints of field employees. That statement is supported by years and years of historical, institutional and a well documented pattern and practice of challenging and attacking anyone sub-14 who files a complaint. The field is ALWAYS wrong and management is ALWAYS right in “our” attorney’s minds. Regardless of fact, circumstance or the track records of the persons involved ATF Attorneys blindly defend and protect the executives and managers. IA quickly investigates agents for rumors and just as quickly turns their back on executives for felonies. IA is well known to determine the conclusion of an investigation before it starts and then build a case to fit the “crime”. How can there be trust when those two entities operate that way? Corruption exists at ATF because those who see it are afraid to report it knowing that their allegations will be denied, IA will be after them for something, and the attorneys will prosecute them for anything. If my statements are disputed I am fully prepared to cite cases, examples, names and dates.

Until the playing field is level and everyone is heard, treated, investigated, and disciplined in the same way there will always be dissention, mistrust and a gap in communication that is self-defeating to an agency trying to regain its footing. Thanks in part to cleanupatf, the days of field employees being treated by ATF management with the bullying disregard for our dignity are gone. No more. Over.

Why would I post this statement in the midst of my dispute? Why not? What are they going to do to me? Fire me? They tried that. Didn’t work. Discipline me? They’ve done that. Wreck my reputation? Already done. Break me financially? Close but I’m hanging on (my kids love Pop Tarts and tap water for dinner [jk]). Let people try to kill me? They did but I’m still here and that is not a joke. Frame me for a crime? Tried and failed. Prosecute me? In the middle of that one. Wear me out? Ain’t happenin’. Not yesterday, not today, not tomorrow.

When someone has absolutely nothing to lose, there is absolutely nothing to lose.

Let me tell you a short Vince story that I have first hand knowledge of. If anyone wants to dispute what I post, please do, but know that I hold personal documentation.

Background:

SAC Paul Vido, then SAC of San Francisco, is approached through the chain-of-command by Vince so that Vince can report to Vido directly his allegations on an illegal wiretap in an investigation. Vince's request is denied by the chain-of-command and Vince is advised that Vido refuses to meet with his agent.

Vince makes a formal allegation on the illegal wiretap. Vido and the chain-of-command are now embarassed and attack Vince to cover their failure to recognize or address the illegal wiretap due to Vido's closed door policy and refusal and unwillingness to listen. In doing so ATF conducts a frame-job on him that has evolved into his recent proposed termination. The full details on that will be out soon.

This closed door policy at ATF is also, in part, what leads to www.CleanUpATF.org.

Backstory:

After Vido becomes the SAC in Louisville and after he did everything in his power to destroy the reputation and career of Vince, Vince comes into first-hand, validated and confirmed death threat information that targets Vido and members of Vido's family. Vince does what Vince does, what anyone of character would do - he reports it with urgency.

That information leads to an immediate full blown SRT response to Vido and his family, a full blown investigation of the threats, etc., etc., etc. The threats are contained and life returns to normal for Vido, threat put to rest. Unfortunately not so much for Vince.

Vince is put on the polygraph to determine how he got the information, if he invented it, etc., etc., etc. As would be expected he passes the poly with no issues.

Conclusion:

I think most of us would expect some type of response from the person who's life and family was protected. An acknowledgement, a thank you, something. Not an award or a medal or a trophy. Maybe just an email or text that said thank you intervening on behalf of me and my family to report your information and protect our lives. Maybe a message from someone of authority at ATF to recognized that Vince saved the life of a fellow agent - the life of an SES SAC who had done everything in his power to ruin Vince, the very person who stepped up to protect the SAC and his families well being.

You all know the last line. Nothing. Crickets. Silence.

Vince is the guy they want to fire for alleged "lack of candor". Vince I have said this to you privately but I will say it publicly also, I can not wait for ATF to hand you your gun and badge back and restore your employment so that you can give it back to them in retirement on your terms. Hard times right now my brutha but you will survive and win.

If there is one single line of challenge or discrepancy to these statements please contact me publicly or privately to enlighten me on what I don't know or understand. Every bit of that story is accurate.

When people hear about Vince or see him on TV and feel that he is disgruntled or malcontent, think about this little story, what he has been put through, and how you personally would have responded if you had spent any time in his shoes.

You're suggestion to "quit and prepare a resume" are the means and methods of sissys. You suggest that somehow by exposing the corruption at ATF, we have "damaged" ATF. It is the corruption itself that is ruining ATF, not those who shine the light on it. If everyone followed your suggestion then guns would still be passing through ATF operations into Mexico, Agents, Mexican cops and civilians would be murdered with no accountability. The self-righteous leadership would still be sitting pretty with no pressure on them to tell the truth.

How can those that are sick of the corrupt double-standards of ATF improve anything by just leaving? It doesn't sound like you want the status quo to remain, but then in the next sentence, it sounds like you do.

If you or anyone you cared about had suffered the way the way many of us have you would be encouraging the exposure and accountability instead of asking everyone to stick their heads in the sand and pretend like it isn't happening. Our agency is in ruin but no person I have spoken to at ATF wants it to be vanquished. We just want ATF to get back to doing what we do without having to cheat and break the law and then cover it up and lie about it.

ATF is not in trouble because people have spoken out, but because people like you have been content to allow corruption to continue.

Please don't say that there is "another means to address the problems". Every conceivable method was attempted on multiple occasions and all we ever got was a blind eye and a deaf ear. Instead of telling us to run away, which solves nothing other than making things personally easier for you, tell us how to get some reform. We are all ears and will use any reasonable suggestion to try and get things fixed.

Chainsaw, please keep posting here. I do not agree with your "solution", but I am always willing to hear anyone out, regardless of whether I like what they.

For me personally, I challenge you to find a single public or private statement I have made that suggests "all of ATF is bad". Never have and never will. I have spilled blood for ATF and with many of the great agents and supervisors you brag on. Our leadership is the problem and the efforts of this site have only tried to expose that.

I have to agree with ATFSA, you people are doing more to make the entire agency look bad than you are toward getting the management cleaned up. The general public doesn't know any difference between an SES, SAC, ASAC, RAC and a POA. It would appear from reading most of the posts on this blog that ATF is just a bunch of pea-brained rejects who couldn't investigate their way out of a paper bag. I happen to know otherwise and believe that ATF is filled with top notch criminal investigators, who work extremely hard and work better cases which end up with more bad guys in prison for longer periods of time than several other federal law enforcement agencies combined....this is accomplished with a smaller budget and fewer agents than the other federal agencies have. The posts of you discontented employees only serve to give ammunition to those who wish to see ATF go by the wayside. Perhaps none of you have thought of this, maybe the best way to improve ATF would be for those of you who aren't happy working for ATF to quit and find a job elsewhere. Instead of all the complaining and whining, maybe your energy and time could be more wisely invested by getting your resume up to date and applications submitted.