August 17, 2023 • 39 mins
When the White House sends an operative to quietly take over a little-known federal agency, the shake-up is anything but smooth: mass firings, bizarre hires, accusations of sex in the office. The only thing preventing the agency from imploding? A team of public servants who refuse to shut up.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
We all come in and Pack eventually comes into the
meeting about five ten minutes late, and he sits down,
and I remember him saying, in this very kind of cliche,
sort of double O seven, evil villain kind of way,
this is the beginning of a process.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Grant Turner is talking about the first meeting he and
his colleagues had with their new boss, a man named
Michael Pack. It's June twenty twenty, and Pack is the
controversial political appointee of President Donald Trump, newly installed to
run the US Agency for Global Media or USAGM, where
(00:42):
Grant Turner is the CFO. The agency runs a number
of media networks outside the United States, the best known
being Voice of America. They broadcast all over the world,
but are especially focused on countries where authoritarian regimes make
a free press impossible. And Grant is a real believer
(01:03):
in the mission the agency. I think of his kind
of a gift of American values to people around the world.
We're demonstrating that it's very important that this unique part
of a democratic society function well, and that it's nonpartisan,
that it's not a mouthpiece for the government. Throughout his
(01:23):
time in office, President Trump has often bumped up against
this kind of attitude that various government agencies operate with
so called norms like independence or nonpartisanship, like the idea
that the FBI or Intelligence community are quote unquote a
political But it seems like the President finds this idea
(01:44):
to be quaint or deeply frustrating. Anyway, he doesn't like it.
Why shouldn't USAGM be a mouthpiece for the government. And
another thing, it's year four of this administration, and the
President is really sick of the media. The constant carping
(02:05):
from the failing New York Times, the hostile coverage on CNN.
It's hard to know exactly when it dawns on the
President that the US government actually has its own news
organization and that the head of that organization is appointed
by the President himself. But now his guy, Michael Pack
is in the job, and Pack has plans to shake
(02:28):
things up. He's at the beginning of a process, he says,
and the journalists at USAGM are about to find out
exactly what that means. I'm Miles Taylor, and this is
the whistleblowers on this show. We're going deep into the
heart of power to meet people who spoke out about
(02:50):
wrongdoing from inside the Trump administration. They all had different
red lines. Some of them came forward immediately, while others
agonized for months, even years. But in the end, they
all made the decision that sharing the truth was worth
the potential blowback. Now, most whistleblowers we've heard from so
far in this series had to face that struggle alone,
(03:14):
but in this story, the fight to share the truth
was a collective one. Episode seven packed and sacked. The
mission for the US Agency for Global Media and its
(03:34):
flagship network, the Voice of America, actually goes back to
the nineteen forties.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Here's grant really is kind of born out of sort
of World War Two and American efforts during World War
Two to talk to people who are engaged in that
great clash, and really it's sort of matured during the
Cold War, in particular talking to people who are living
behind the Iron curtain.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Is a voice speaking from America, the voice from America
at war.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
The news may be good or bad.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
We shall tell you the.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Truth, like you hear in that clip from Voice of
America broadcast during World War II. The basic premise is
that this news organization is committed to providing uncensored news
coverage without a political agenda, and though that mission was
especially important during the Cold War, it's continued to this day.
(04:31):
Libby lu was president of Radio Free Asia. Like Voice
of America, it's another network run by USAGM. She believes
that the agency's work today is just as significant as
it was decades ago.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Radiofri Asia's mission is to provide uncensored news and information
to people living in repressive environments in Asia. So this
would be China, North Korea, Me and mar and Tibet.
So these are people that are gas lit by state
(05:05):
controlled media and the truth resonates.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
For example, Radio Free Asia has covered the repression and
detention of China's weaker population, the fact that Chinese state
media definitely would not admit. Here's one of those pieces.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
This video footage is extremely important because this is a
real video footage of China transferring Weiger detainees. There are
a handicuffed, a blind folded. There had shaved.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
But now in twenty twenty, with the pandemic raging and
the economy in free fall, there's a lot of news
coming out of the United States that's not great. VOA
reports the nuts and Bolts of the pandemic's devastating impact
on Americans to audiences around the world in dozens of languages.
But President Trump, who's running for re election, doesn't want
(06:00):
that negative news spreading outside of the United States, and
he reacts like he often does. He takes it personally,
and like he's prone to do, he goes on the attack.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
If you heard what's coming out of the Voice of America,
it's disgusting. What things they say are disgusting toward our country.
And Michael Pack would get in. He do a great job.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
The President mentions Michael Pack because his candidate for the
top job at USAGM has been tied up in Senate
confirmation hearings for years, and Trump is very eager to
get Pack into USAGM and shift the focus of the
agency's news coverage, make it a little more, let's say,
fair and balanced.
Speaker 5 (06:45):
He's been sucking committee for two years, preventing us from
managing the Voice of America very important. Can't get him.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Approved, But why is Pack having trouble getting confirmed? Pack
is a documentary filmmaker and also runs a nonprofit filmmaking
organization called Public Media Lab. The resume sounds thin, but
otherwise okay. NPR media correspondent David Folkenflick covered USAGM under
(07:13):
Michael Pack. I asked him to explain why Pack was
such a contentious choice.
Speaker 6 (07:18):
There were concerns as the months went on about his
honesty and integrity. There were questions of whether he had
hidden he had funneled not for profit Foundation grant money
donations through a nonprofit that he and his wife controlled
into the for profit documentary outfit that he was running.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
The documentary outfit is also most well known at the
time for a glowing documentary about Justice Clarence Thomas, with
unprecedented access to the reclusive judge. This raises some eyebrows too,
as USAGM is supposed to be strictly firewalled from any
association with politics, and Pack's relationship with a certain Maga
(07:57):
flamethrower doesn't help him either.
Speaker 6 (08:00):
He had also been linked to Steve Bannon, someone notable
for his contempt for norms of journalism. He clearly saw
news outlets as political cudgels to wield.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Bannon also once called Voice of America and I quote
a rotten fish from top to bottom unquote, So you
know where he stands.
Speaker 6 (08:24):
Democrats really had some real issues with the degree of
ideology that he seemed to bring to the job, with
his ties to Bannon, who was not only ideological but
partisan in a way that is not in keeping with
the best traditions and principles of Voice of America.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
But in the summer of twenty twenty, Pack finally does
make it through the process. He's confirmed by the Senate
and takes over as CEO of USAGM. Employees are wary
about their new boss, but as Grant Turner describes it,
Pack is more them a little wary about them.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
There was some kind of very strange paranoia with this
team that came in where they just kind of didn't
trust anyone.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
They certainly didn't.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Trust the folks who were career civil servants like myself.
We were sort of branded as a deep state loyalists
that were secretly all Democrats who are trying to subvert
the Trump administration. And as someone who's made my way
in DC helping administrations of both sides of the aisle,
(09:31):
I knew that was you know, that was incorrect.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Grant decides to go into the first meeting with Pack
keeping an open mind. This is the meeting where Pack
talks about the beginning of a process, and that process
starts almost as soon as the meeting is over. That's
because Pack and his team start firing everyone. Media whisper
Brian Stelter of CNN reported on the widespread sackings.
Speaker 7 (09:59):
He fired the heads the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, Middle
East Broadcasting Networks, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia,
and the Open Technology Fund. Pack said in a MEMOTA
staffer is that he is fully committed to honoring VOA's charter,
the missions of the grantees, and the independence of our
heroic journalists around the world.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Libby Lou is running the Open Technology Fund at this point,
another USAGM agency dedicated to promoting Internet freedom. She decides
to resign before she's fired. Now, look, lots of new
leaders come in and clean house, but these first moves
by Michael Pack and his team seem motivated by something specific.
(10:42):
I asked David Fulkenflick to explain why certain journalists like
Libby Lou were forced out or fired.
Speaker 6 (10:49):
It was anybody who said, look, you can't do it
that way. You might be breaking the law, or this
isn't the way this gets done. Or this isn't something
that's an appropriate role for the over site part of
the agency that administers these networks. He was convinced that
everybody there was against him had been working against him.
(11:09):
It was very Nixonian levels of paranoia.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
He's just as suspicious about potential never Trump allies as
he is of those who might be progressives. One of
the staffers he fires is Radio Freeze CEO Jamie Fly,
a former aid to Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush. And
firing senior staffers is just one move. Starving the beast,
(11:34):
meaning not providing the money to various news departments is another.
As CFO Grant Turner is especially close to this issue,
and he's alarmed by what he sees.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
I'm the one who's providing the money in the cfo's
office to all of our networks. I couldn't get approval
to send any money to anyone. I'm kind of just
jumping up and down saying these people aren't going to
be able to make their payroll.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
But pack and company have another ten that has a
much more devastating human cost.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
They were denying visas to Jay One visa holders people
we have brought to this country because of their language
skills to help us communicate to the vast audiences we
have around the world. And if we didn't extend their visas,
they would have to go back to their country, where
some of them would be in grave danger because of
the broadcasting they did.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Hear a Voice of America Libby lou.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
Everybody that works to produce the content, and Radiopreasia is
an enemy of the States. So they are living in
perpetual danger.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
But some of them are going back to places where
you know, they could be harassed, they could be imprisoned,
they could be killed. We have a wall in our
building which is covered with all the journalists who died,
and the fact that it was so cavalier about that,
I just thought it was just a really terrible moral
thing for him to do.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
David fulknflick again.
Speaker 6 (13:00):
Three Voice America employees and contractors lost their positions because
Pack refused to authorize an extension or to sponsor a
change in their immigration status. They found themselves jobless, and
then at a certain point they found themselves visiless.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
The journalist David speaks to are in deep distress.
Speaker 6 (13:17):
I talked to people in tears. There were people who
had to return home, and I have not tracked what
happened with all of them.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
We were also unable to verify what happened to these
journalists after they were sent home, in some cases to
hostile countries. It's just a month into Pack's tenure and
it's hard to imagine how things could get worse, but
they do. Michael Pack is firing people and others are resigning,
(13:55):
but he's also making some interesting new hires. According to
Grant Turner.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
He brought a guye I used to kind of run
a very right wing radio talk show out of Florida.
He kind of dress up in a full Arab outfit
and sort of hosts this sort of jahatty show segment
on his network.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
This Florida talk show host, Frank Wuco had done segments
on his show that included racist comments about President Barack
Obama's quote Kenyan heritage and sexist bits about Nancy Pelosi's botox.
He actually came into the administration at the Department of
Homeland Security, where I briefly encountered him. Frank was controversial
(14:36):
to say the least, and DHS leaders tried to get
rid of him, but in typical fashion, the white House
just moved him somewhere else. Frank winds up at USAGM
as a top advisor again, David Fulkenflick.
Speaker 6 (14:52):
Pack appointed boards that were stocked with figures with very
hardline ideological belief thiefs. The group included a guy his
senior counsel to the conservative Christian evangelical group Liberty Council Action,
which has really been strongly active against gay and trans rights.
He named a woman who was at that time a
(15:14):
senior aid at the US Agency for International Development who
is an anti transactivist, and he named you know, others
with ties to the Trump administration. Two of the people
he appointed have ties to groups that were publicly advocating
on behalf of Trump's completely baseless claims of widespread voter
fraud in twenty.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Twenty, maybe most notably, Pack brings in someone named Sam Dewey.
Here's grant.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
He was one of the first folks who came in.
He was a lawyer, but he was in fact basically
just a senior advisor to Michael Pack.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
And the person had to.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Surrender his firearms in Maryland because he threatened to kill
his father and then kill himself.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
David Fulkenflick again, he threatened I believe his father.
Speaker 6 (16:00):
He did so in specific detail about the weapon he'd
use and other things, and it was pretty graphic, to
the point where the father took out a restraining order.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
I feel like that kind of thing usually disqualifies someone
for government employment. But norms are made to be broken,
I guess. And as troubling as all of this is,
Grant's team actually has a more immediate concern because the
reason that Sam Dewey has been hired is to investigate
the agency itself for its alleged bias against the president
(16:33):
and his agenda.
Speaker 6 (16:35):
So there were people at USAGM who, once that was known,
became very uneasy with the idea that this was the
guy who was investigating them.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah, that's kind of fair.
Speaker 8 (16:48):
My job really is to drain the swamp, to root
out corruption and to deal with these issues of bias.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Like he says in that interview for the Conservative News website,
the Federalist Pack is there to weed out journalists within
USAGM that he believes are part of this liberal deep
state apparatus. One of the first is the head of
Voice of America's news coverage for Iran satarre Deshesh sig.
Speaker 9 (17:15):
I'm setoire de Rachesh. I was the director of the
Voice of America Persian service for about eight years.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Satari grew up in Iran in the nineteen sixties and seventies,
a turbulent time that led to the ouster of the
Shah of Iran and ushered in the Islamic Republic led
by an authoritarian cleric named Rhala Komani. For anyone aligned
with the former regime, it was a treacherous moment.
Speaker 9 (17:42):
I was born in Iran in a political family. My
father was a renowned pro democracy secular politician. He dedicated
his life to the struggle for education reform and political
reform in Iran. He was sentenced to death by Romani,
the founder of the Iranian Revolution, when he refured used
to work with him and the Islamic regime. So we
came to the United States when my family was forced
(18:05):
to flee iron and we were given political asylum in
this country.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Satari experienced the value of Voice of America's independent news
coverage in a very personal way.
Speaker 9 (18:17):
When my father was arrested. I heard about his arrest
on the Voice of America and that compelled me to
go work for organizations that speak the truth. I took
my beliefs and my work to the Voice of America
so I could speak directly to the Iranian people, just.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Like the other journalists Grant and Libby Leo described. Satarre
was aware of the personal risk that came with this decision.
Speaker 9 (18:46):
When we launched our first television program in two thousand
and three, I was anchor and managing editor for that program,
and I was really the face of the Voice of
America Persian. That was a time when my colleagues would
not even put their names on the credits. And from
that year on I was a target of smear campaigns
(19:08):
by the Iranan government. I have been designated in Iran
as the enemy of the state, and I received death threats.
I'm on their blacklist. I can never go back to Iran.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Satari had been at Voice of America for twenty five years,
and she expected smear campaigns and threats of retaliation from
the Iranian regime. That was par for the course, but
she didn't expect it from her own agency. Her internal
alarm started to go off even before Pack took over.
Speaker 9 (19:38):
It was September of twenty nineteen I received an email
from a newly appointed State Department official who was a
Trump loyalist. The email was in reference to what and
how the coverage should be done. I thought that there
was a clear attempt to wanting to change the coverage.
I immediately alerted my supervisor and the head of programming
(19:59):
and the leadership. I responded to the email, letting the
person know that I could discuss process, but not editorial.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
There are other issues Satari brings to management's attention before
Pack's arrival, incidents where she feels the administration is trying
to run interference on her team's news coverage. But when
Pack takes charge, her concerns skyrocket. One of the first
people who Pack fires is the standards editor for Voice
of America, whose job it is to make sure the
(20:29):
news coverage complies with journalistic ethics. Right away, satarre files
a complaint. It's a move that involves some risk.
Speaker 9 (20:38):
I was warned by my colleagues at USAGM and at VOA,
and from people from outside that I should be careful
that I was going to get retaliated against for raising
these issues.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
And those people are right. Retaliation is quick.
Speaker 9 (20:57):
They had asked obviously of the Inspector General all files
complaints ever received in the agency dude during the last
fifteen years about me. They went over my emails from
twenty twelve and they were looking for anything that could
be used to initiate a dismissal process against me.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Pack's team then tells Satare they have found six anonymous complaints,
all recently filed, which they say are grounds for her suspension.
They include allegations that she's fabricated her resume and used
her connections to hook up friends and family members with jobs,
and they go public with these so called findings by
(21:39):
sharing them with conservative news outlets. A spokesperson for Pack
tells the press quote, this is the fox guarding the
hen house. Sigg's record of mismanagement and deception are irrefutable.
None of these complaints have any substance for Satare. The
personal attacks and their effect on her professional reputation are
(22:00):
one thing, but worse is the self inflicted damage the
agency is doing to its own mission.
Speaker 9 (22:07):
This is the best gift for the Iranian regime. They
used to continuously speak about how you know, there was
turmoil inside VOA. There was you know, infighting and anything
that they could find, and this was an easy way
for them to say, look, we told you so, and
(22:28):
that was the worst weapon they could use against the
Voice of America.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
By the end of August twenty twenty, Michael Pack has
shown that he can be incredibly effective at purging people.
Satare is under investigation, Libby is out, and many others.
But there's still a major thorn in his side. Grant Turner,
the man in charge of the money.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
They were aware that I was raising issues of a
big concern. They knew that what they were doing was wrong.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
How exactly did Michael Pack and his team know what
they were doing was wrong because their CFO kept telling them.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Part of being a whistleblower is you have to tell
your management chain what they're doing wrong. The Hill was
already reaching out to them, saying, we want to talk
with you who have concerns about stuff that's happening.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
The Hill as in Capitol Hill, which means Congress is
getting involved. David's side is an attorney with the Government
Accountability Project who works with whistleblowers, including Grant.
Speaker 10 (23:35):
As CFO, he's in charge of the budget, He's in
charge of asking the Congress for money and spending the
money the Congress appropriates, and time and again, he went
to mister packin said, look, you know you've decided to
cancel an agency's funding, but you can't do that.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
But Pack and his team are creative, and they finally
come up with a way to fire Grant along with
four others.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
They came across this solution that if they pulled all
of our security clearances and said that we shouldn't have
security clearances, that they could remove us from our jobs.
Our position description said Grant, for you to serve as CFO,
you need to have a security clearance. So if they
pulled the security clearance, then I couldn't serve in my
job anymore. And that ended up being kind of this
(24:20):
magic wand that they kind of wave over the half
dozen senior staff at the agency and get us out
of the way.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
It's a nifty bureaucratic catch twenty two. They can only
be employed in their roles if they have security clearances
for access to classified information, and management decides that their
security clearances are out of date. In fact, Pack says
that Grant and others are responsible for systemic security failures
at the agency, and even goes so far as to
(24:50):
imply that they might be in cahoots with foreign governments.
He alludes to this theory on the conservative news website
The Federalist.
Speaker 8 (25:00):
The security lapses are I think pretty shocking. Foreign intelligence
agencies from beginning at the creation of these agencies have
been interested in penetrating them. To be a journalist is
a great cover for a spy. This agency is right
all these problems. Yeah, there's way more than I thought.
Speaker 10 (25:15):
David's side, to be escorted from the building that you've
worked in for ten years and told you have no
more duties than to stay home is a horrible experience
for anyone, let alone someone with a sterling reputation who
had no reason to be victimized the way he was.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
I'm sure that doesn't feel great, but for Grant it's
actually a moment of mixed emotions.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
There was some relief because every day you're just observing
all this kind of you know, incompetence and carnage around
you and just kind of nastiness, and it was just, frankly,
a relief not to have to see these really awful humans.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
That relief is short lived, because Grant knows he can't
just walk away.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
It wasn't just going to happen under cover of darkness
and no one would ever know the horrible things that
were going on. I wasn't just going to let them
wreck the agency and sit silently by. I talked to
the Government Accountability Project. I wanted to make sure I
did it the right way, and I wanted to make
(26:29):
sure very much that it was bipartisan.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
So Grant meets with whistleblower attorney David's side and decides
to file an official complaint against Pack, and all things considered,
Grant feels pretty confident.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
I wasn't too fearful. I don't know if it's because
maybe I'm a little bit older, I'm further long in
my career, or because the volume has already been turned
to eleven right.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
And also Grant's not alone. In addition to the managers
fired alongside him for security clearances, Satare also files a
complaint with the Government Accountability Project over wrongful retaliation. Satare.
Speaker 9 (27:09):
Again, I wasn't by myself, and that was very very good,
very comforting. We had two excellent lawyers, one was Mark
Zaid and one was David's side, with them on our side.
On my side, I knew that we were going to get.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Through David's side.
Speaker 10 (27:28):
We represent well over two dozen Voice of America and
USAGM clients during this period, and without exception, each of
them were victimized for doing nothing, for doing their job.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill are alarmed to hear
what's going on inside USAGM and this effort to turn
the agency into a partisan mouthpiece. Ironically, it becomes a
rare moment of bipartisanship.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Some of the people who are most infuriated with Michael
Pack and his management of the agency were the Republicans
on the Hill, people who've worked with our agency for
many years and realize that it's important.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
In September twenty twenty, Democratic Congressman Elliott Angele and Republican
Michael McCall convene a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs
Committee where they hear testimony from Grant and his colleagues
after three months of turmoil at the agency. After being
fired after being attacked, Grant gets to say his piece publicly.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
In the two and a half months I worked under
mister Pack, he repeatedly breached the firewall designed to protect
journalists and editors from political influence. Based on what I've witnessed,
from small issues to very big ones, I don't believe
mister Pack and his team came to run the agency.
I don't think they even like it. This just isn't
what normal people do.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
We obviously had a lot of support from Congress across
the aisles. Libby lu Grill was so grounded as a
person that he was able to take things in stride
and just keep moving forward.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Satarre sick.
Speaker 9 (29:12):
He was actually the only person who went in front
of Congress and testified. He was brave to do that,
and Grant represented everyone.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
David folkenflick again.
Speaker 6 (29:30):
When you had people come forward out of the shadows
and speak for the record by their name and give
voice to what was happening inside and present this not
as deep state, faceless bureaucrats, but human beings who have
given years of their life to the federal government. It
caires a different tone.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
As for Michael Pack, he defies a Congressional subpoena and
he doesn't appear, But thanks to Grant's testimony, Congress feels
they have plenty of material to make a decision to investigate.
Speaker 6 (30:03):
It allowed lawmakers in Congress who had concerns to articulate them. Also,
it was bipartisan at times. Michael McFall of Texas on
the House side, had real concerns about the independence and
voice of America and it then triggered, of course, serious
investigations from the Inspector General's office at State Department.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
The courts also get involved. One of the lawsuits filed
on behalf of Grant Satare and the rest of the
team results in a federal judge ruling that Pack's executive
actions at the agency were unconstitutional.
Speaker 6 (30:35):
When lawsuits were filed, it allowed a federal judge to
weigh in and say that not only what Pack was
doing was wrong, but unconstitutional, and that really had a
clarion call. A federally appointed judge, in absolutely unmistakable terms,
is articulating that what is happening is against the American
(30:58):
Constitution because it's violating the free speech precepts embedded in
the notion of what journalists do, and even when they
work for the federal government in this case, especially because
they worked for the federal government.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
When Joe Biden takes office in January twenty twenty one,
he has a long to do list but close to
the top of that list is USAGM prison.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Biden's first act was to remove Michael Pack. He did
that within the first hour after his inauguration.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
And a little over a month later, Grant Is reinstalled
as the CFO.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Ultimately, it was the election that mattered. If President Trump
had had won the election in November, Michael Pack would
still be there.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Satare is also cleared to return.
Speaker 9 (31:45):
I got a letter from Labor Relations saying that they're
coming back.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Satari is cleared of all of the allegations that have
been leveled against her, including each of the anonymous complaints
which are proven to be baseless, and she gets to
rejoin Voice of America.
Speaker 9 (32:02):
I'm currently serving as director of Program Review and special
assistant to the Program Director at USAGM's Voice of America.
It was as if I had never left.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
On May tenth, twenty twenty three, Grant, Satare and their
colleagues got the final validation they needed. That's when the
US Office of the Special Council notified President Biden that
they had determined, after an eighteen month independent investigation, that
the whistleblower reports of abuses by political operatives installed at
(32:38):
the Voice of America, it's sibling networks and its oversight
agency USAGM were true. It's a happy ending, But libbylu
thinks the agency was saved only just in time.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
If the networks had started spewing propaganda, I think that
that would have been disasters. The reason the audiences will
risk their lives to listen to the news that we're
broadcasting is because their own governments are distorting their reality.
So basically, if on the side of the informers, you
(33:18):
also put that propaganda in, then the whole thing is
worthless and they can smell it.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
But Libby also believes there's something about the culture of
USAGM that's stronger than any single person who may try
to bend it to suit a political agenda.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
People that grow up in propagonistic societies they know propaganda.
That's why the truth is so resonant. But the editorial,
the journalists, they had a deep understanding about what they're
doing and why they're doing it, So that would take
longer than Michael Pack to destroy.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
More information has continued to bubble up about the craziness
of Michael Pack's tenure. For example, during his reign in
November twenty twenty it was reported that staffers in his
office building were caught having sex against the windows, and
a video was then leaked to The Daily Caller. Employees
say they have since learned Pack's team tried to point
(34:19):
the fingers at the agency's civil servants, claiming without evidence
that the couple must have worked at Voice of America.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
The Pack folks try to suggest that it was VOA.
Just when you think it, you can't get any weirder,
you know, they throw in a sex tape.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
But even more shocking are the details that have surfaced
since about how Michael Pack and his team tried to
purge the agency of so called deep state hacks like
Grant Turner, Libby lu and Satare sig.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
You spent a couple million dollars on outside attorneys to
compile a dossier on me. The agency paid McGuire Woods
at one point six million dollars.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
McGuire Woods, a white shoe law firm.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
To over sixty people working on this project. From maguire Woods,
it reading thousands of my emails. They go back years
to find some kind of dirt on me that they
could use.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
David's side again, he.
Speaker 10 (35:14):
Had the bills from the law firm to see what
they did for all that money. They built thousands of
hours of attorney time at hundreds of dollars an hour,
to find nothing of significance that in any way heard
mister Turner.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
The last day that the Trump people were there, they
sent out about five hundred pages of information they had
gathered on me to the Trump loyalists and the LGBT
hate group that they put on our grantee networks boards.
I happened to be gay, and they sent out this
(35:49):
five hundred page dossier to them with all these kind
of false accusations about me.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Satare was also the subject of one of these dossiers.
Speaker 9 (35:58):
I found out that the Pack team put together one
thousand pages of document about fifteen years of my work
at THEA and I was saddened by the money that
was spent at the time that they put and the
focus that they had on this.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
For Satare, her own experience living under a repressive regime
gave her some perspective on the era of Michael Pack
at USAGM, but it wasn't enough to change her mind
about American democracy.
Speaker 9 (36:34):
I think that when you have gone through political persecution
in your country of origin, you develop a very strong
foundation and resilience, and this was not something that I
could not handle. But I still believe in the basic
values of a democratic political system in the United States.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
But another reason is the fight against Michael Pack's process
was a collaborative one, and no one was truly on
their own. Here's grant.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
I've been really happy that people who care about the
agency knew about it and were trying to do stuff
about it, and care that we took these actions, and
I think that's been enough.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Next time on The Whistleblowers. In our final episode, we
talked to two dissenters at the highest levels of government,
including one who worked just down the hall from the
Oval office. In both of their cases, breaking ranks didn't
just mean getting sidelined. It meant getting chased into the wilderness.
(38:06):
The Whistleblowers is a production of iHeart Podcasts in partnership
with Best Case Studios and Arc Media. It was hosted
by me Miles Taylor and written by me Isabel Evans
and Adam Pinkis. Isabel Evans is also our producer. Associate
producers are Hanahlieblowitz Lockhart and Ashley Warren. Darcy peakele Is
consulting producer. Zach Herman is the VP of Development of
(38:26):
ARC Media. This episode was edited by Max Michael Miller.
Original music is by James Newberry. Executive producers are Me
Miles Taylor, Adam Pinkss for Best Case Studios and Barrick
Goodman for ARC Media. Beth Ann Mcaluso is our executive
producer for iHeartMedia, along with Ali Perry. Special thanks to
Kevin Famm, all of our contributors and interviewees, and our
(38:47):
intern Anna Levitt At A big thanks to the teams
at Government Accountability Project and Whistleblower Aide, two of the
best organizations for government and private sector whistleblowers seeking legal support.
Follow and Rate the Whistle on the podcast site of
your choice to hear what these whistleblowers and others have
to say about what they believe will happen under a
(39:07):
second Trump administration or in the White House of AMaGA
Successor you can pick up my new book, Blowback from
Simon and Schuster
We all come in and Pack eventually comes into the
meeting about five ten minutes late, and he sits down,
and I remember him saying, in this very kind of cliche,
sort of double O seven, evil villain kind of way,
this is the beginning of a process.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Grant Turner is talking about the first meeting he and
his colleagues had with their new boss, a man named
Michael Pack. It's June twenty twenty, and Pack is the
controversial political appointee of President Donald Trump, newly installed to
run the US Agency for Global Media or USAGM, where
(00:42):
Grant Turner is the CFO. The agency runs a number
of media networks outside the United States, the best known
being Voice of America. They broadcast all over the world,
but are especially focused on countries where authoritarian regimes make
a free press impossible. And Grant is a real believer
(01:03):
in the mission the agency. I think of his kind
of a gift of American values to people around the world.
We're demonstrating that it's very important that this unique part
of a democratic society function well, and that it's nonpartisan,
that it's not a mouthpiece for the government. Throughout his
(01:23):
time in office, President Trump has often bumped up against
this kind of attitude that various government agencies operate with
so called norms like independence or nonpartisanship, like the idea
that the FBI or Intelligence community are quote unquote a
political But it seems like the President finds this idea
(01:44):
to be quaint or deeply frustrating. Anyway, he doesn't like it.
Why shouldn't USAGM be a mouthpiece for the government. And
another thing, it's year four of this administration, and the
President is really sick of the media. The constant carping
(02:05):
from the failing New York Times, the hostile coverage on CNN.
It's hard to know exactly when it dawns on the
President that the US government actually has its own news
organization and that the head of that organization is appointed
by the President himself. But now his guy, Michael Pack
is in the job, and Pack has plans to shake
(02:28):
things up. He's at the beginning of a process, he says,
and the journalists at USAGM are about to find out
exactly what that means. I'm Miles Taylor, and this is
the whistleblowers on this show. We're going deep into the
heart of power to meet people who spoke out about
(02:50):
wrongdoing from inside the Trump administration. They all had different
red lines. Some of them came forward immediately, while others
agonized for months, even years. But in the end, they
all made the decision that sharing the truth was worth
the potential blowback. Now, most whistleblowers we've heard from so
far in this series had to face that struggle alone,
(03:14):
but in this story, the fight to share the truth
was a collective one. Episode seven packed and sacked. The
mission for the US Agency for Global Media and its
(03:34):
flagship network, the Voice of America, actually goes back to
the nineteen forties.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Here's grant really is kind of born out of sort
of World War Two and American efforts during World War
Two to talk to people who are engaged in that
great clash, and really it's sort of matured during the
Cold War, in particular talking to people who are living
behind the Iron curtain.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Is a voice speaking from America, the voice from America
at war.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
The news may be good or bad.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
We shall tell you the.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Truth, like you hear in that clip from Voice of
America broadcast during World War II. The basic premise is
that this news organization is committed to providing uncensored news
coverage without a political agenda, and though that mission was
especially important during the Cold War, it's continued to this day.
(04:31):
Libby lu was president of Radio Free Asia. Like Voice
of America, it's another network run by USAGM. She believes
that the agency's work today is just as significant as
it was decades ago.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Radiofri Asia's mission is to provide uncensored news and information
to people living in repressive environments in Asia. So this
would be China, North Korea, Me and mar and Tibet.
So these are people that are gas lit by state
(05:05):
controlled media and the truth resonates.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
For example, Radio Free Asia has covered the repression and
detention of China's weaker population, the fact that Chinese state
media definitely would not admit. Here's one of those pieces.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
This video footage is extremely important because this is a
real video footage of China transferring Weiger detainees. There are
a handicuffed, a blind folded. There had shaved.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
But now in twenty twenty, with the pandemic raging and
the economy in free fall, there's a lot of news
coming out of the United States that's not great. VOA
reports the nuts and Bolts of the pandemic's devastating impact
on Americans to audiences around the world in dozens of languages.
But President Trump, who's running for re election, doesn't want
(06:00):
that negative news spreading outside of the United States, and
he reacts like he often does. He takes it personally,
and like he's prone to do, he goes on the attack.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
If you heard what's coming out of the Voice of America,
it's disgusting. What things they say are disgusting toward our country.
And Michael Pack would get in. He do a great job.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
The President mentions Michael Pack because his candidate for the
top job at USAGM has been tied up in Senate
confirmation hearings for years, and Trump is very eager to
get Pack into USAGM and shift the focus of the
agency's news coverage, make it a little more, let's say,
fair and balanced.
Speaker 5 (06:45):
He's been sucking committee for two years, preventing us from
managing the Voice of America very important. Can't get him.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Approved, But why is Pack having trouble getting confirmed? Pack
is a documentary filmmaker and also runs a nonprofit filmmaking
organization called Public Media Lab. The resume sounds thin, but
otherwise okay. NPR media correspondent David Folkenflick covered USAGM under
(07:13):
Michael Pack. I asked him to explain why Pack was
such a contentious choice.
Speaker 6 (07:18):
There were concerns as the months went on about his
honesty and integrity. There were questions of whether he had
hidden he had funneled not for profit Foundation grant money
donations through a nonprofit that he and his wife controlled
into the for profit documentary outfit that he was running.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
The documentary outfit is also most well known at the
time for a glowing documentary about Justice Clarence Thomas, with
unprecedented access to the reclusive judge. This raises some eyebrows too,
as USAGM is supposed to be strictly firewalled from any
association with politics, and Pack's relationship with a certain Maga
(07:57):
flamethrower doesn't help him either.
Speaker 6 (08:00):
He had also been linked to Steve Bannon, someone notable
for his contempt for norms of journalism. He clearly saw
news outlets as political cudgels to wield.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Bannon also once called Voice of America and I quote
a rotten fish from top to bottom unquote, So you
know where he stands.
Speaker 6 (08:24):
Democrats really had some real issues with the degree of
ideology that he seemed to bring to the job, with
his ties to Bannon, who was not only ideological but
partisan in a way that is not in keeping with
the best traditions and principles of Voice of America.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
But in the summer of twenty twenty, Pack finally does
make it through the process. He's confirmed by the Senate
and takes over as CEO of USAGM. Employees are wary
about their new boss, but as Grant Turner describes it,
Pack is more them a little wary about them.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
There was some kind of very strange paranoia with this
team that came in where they just kind of didn't
trust anyone.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
They certainly didn't.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Trust the folks who were career civil servants like myself.
We were sort of branded as a deep state loyalists
that were secretly all Democrats who are trying to subvert
the Trump administration. And as someone who's made my way
in DC helping administrations of both sides of the aisle,
(09:31):
I knew that was you know, that was incorrect.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Grant decides to go into the first meeting with Pack
keeping an open mind. This is the meeting where Pack
talks about the beginning of a process, and that process
starts almost as soon as the meeting is over. That's
because Pack and his team start firing everyone. Media whisper
Brian Stelter of CNN reported on the widespread sackings.
Speaker 7 (09:59):
He fired the heads the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, Middle
East Broadcasting Networks, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia,
and the Open Technology Fund. Pack said in a MEMOTA
staffer is that he is fully committed to honoring VOA's charter,
the missions of the grantees, and the independence of our
heroic journalists around the world.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Libby Lou is running the Open Technology Fund at this point,
another USAGM agency dedicated to promoting Internet freedom. She decides
to resign before she's fired. Now, look, lots of new
leaders come in and clean house, but these first moves
by Michael Pack and his team seem motivated by something specific.
(10:42):
I asked David Fulkenflick to explain why certain journalists like
Libby Lou were forced out or fired.
Speaker 6 (10:49):
It was anybody who said, look, you can't do it
that way. You might be breaking the law, or this
isn't the way this gets done. Or this isn't something
that's an appropriate role for the over site part of
the agency that administers these networks. He was convinced that
everybody there was against him had been working against him.
(11:09):
It was very Nixonian levels of paranoia.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
He's just as suspicious about potential never Trump allies as
he is of those who might be progressives. One of
the staffers he fires is Radio Freeze CEO Jamie Fly,
a former aid to Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush. And
firing senior staffers is just one move. Starving the beast,
(11:34):
meaning not providing the money to various news departments is another.
As CFO Grant Turner is especially close to this issue,
and he's alarmed by what he sees.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
I'm the one who's providing the money in the cfo's
office to all of our networks. I couldn't get approval
to send any money to anyone. I'm kind of just
jumping up and down saying these people aren't going to
be able to make their payroll.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
But pack and company have another ten that has a
much more devastating human cost.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
They were denying visas to Jay One visa holders people
we have brought to this country because of their language
skills to help us communicate to the vast audiences we
have around the world. And if we didn't extend their visas,
they would have to go back to their country, where
some of them would be in grave danger because of
the broadcasting they did.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Hear a Voice of America Libby lou.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
Everybody that works to produce the content, and Radiopreasia is
an enemy of the States. So they are living in
perpetual danger.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
But some of them are going back to places where
you know, they could be harassed, they could be imprisoned,
they could be killed. We have a wall in our
building which is covered with all the journalists who died,
and the fact that it was so cavalier about that,
I just thought it was just a really terrible moral
thing for him to do.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
David fulknflick again.
Speaker 6 (13:00):
Three Voice America employees and contractors lost their positions because
Pack refused to authorize an extension or to sponsor a
change in their immigration status. They found themselves jobless, and
then at a certain point they found themselves visiless.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
The journalist David speaks to are in deep distress.
Speaker 6 (13:17):
I talked to people in tears. There were people who
had to return home, and I have not tracked what
happened with all of them.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
We were also unable to verify what happened to these
journalists after they were sent home, in some cases to
hostile countries. It's just a month into Pack's tenure and
it's hard to imagine how things could get worse, but
they do. Michael Pack is firing people and others are resigning,
(13:55):
but he's also making some interesting new hires. According to
Grant Turner.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
He brought a guye I used to kind of run
a very right wing radio talk show out of Florida.
He kind of dress up in a full Arab outfit
and sort of hosts this sort of jahatty show segment
on his network.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
This Florida talk show host, Frank Wuco had done segments
on his show that included racist comments about President Barack
Obama's quote Kenyan heritage and sexist bits about Nancy Pelosi's botox.
He actually came into the administration at the Department of
Homeland Security, where I briefly encountered him. Frank was controversial
(14:36):
to say the least, and DHS leaders tried to get
rid of him, but in typical fashion, the white House
just moved him somewhere else. Frank winds up at USAGM
as a top advisor again, David Fulkenflick.
Speaker 6 (14:52):
Pack appointed boards that were stocked with figures with very
hardline ideological belief thiefs. The group included a guy his
senior counsel to the conservative Christian evangelical group Liberty Council Action,
which has really been strongly active against gay and trans rights.
He named a woman who was at that time a
(15:14):
senior aid at the US Agency for International Development who
is an anti transactivist, and he named you know, others
with ties to the Trump administration. Two of the people
he appointed have ties to groups that were publicly advocating
on behalf of Trump's completely baseless claims of widespread voter
fraud in twenty.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Twenty, maybe most notably, Pack brings in someone named Sam Dewey.
Here's grant.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
He was one of the first folks who came in.
He was a lawyer, but he was in fact basically
just a senior advisor to Michael Pack.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
And the person had to.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Surrender his firearms in Maryland because he threatened to kill
his father and then kill himself.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
David Fulkenflick again, he threatened I believe his father.
Speaker 6 (16:00):
He did so in specific detail about the weapon he'd
use and other things, and it was pretty graphic, to
the point where the father took out a restraining order.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
I feel like that kind of thing usually disqualifies someone
for government employment. But norms are made to be broken,
I guess. And as troubling as all of this is,
Grant's team actually has a more immediate concern because the
reason that Sam Dewey has been hired is to investigate
the agency itself for its alleged bias against the president
(16:33):
and his agenda.
Speaker 6 (16:35):
So there were people at USAGM who, once that was known,
became very uneasy with the idea that this was the
guy who was investigating them.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah, that's kind of fair.
Speaker 8 (16:48):
My job really is to drain the swamp, to root
out corruption and to deal with these issues of bias.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Like he says in that interview for the Conservative News website,
the Federalist Pack is there to weed out journalists within
USAGM that he believes are part of this liberal deep
state apparatus. One of the first is the head of
Voice of America's news coverage for Iran satarre Deshesh sig.
Speaker 9 (17:15):
I'm setoire de Rachesh. I was the director of the
Voice of America Persian service for about eight years.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Satari grew up in Iran in the nineteen sixties and seventies,
a turbulent time that led to the ouster of the
Shah of Iran and ushered in the Islamic Republic led
by an authoritarian cleric named Rhala Komani. For anyone aligned
with the former regime, it was a treacherous moment.
Speaker 9 (17:42):
I was born in Iran in a political family. My
father was a renowned pro democracy secular politician. He dedicated
his life to the struggle for education reform and political
reform in Iran. He was sentenced to death by Romani,
the founder of the Iranian Revolution, when he refured used
to work with him and the Islamic regime. So we
came to the United States when my family was forced
(18:05):
to flee iron and we were given political asylum in
this country.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Satari experienced the value of Voice of America's independent news
coverage in a very personal way.
Speaker 9 (18:17):
When my father was arrested. I heard about his arrest
on the Voice of America and that compelled me to
go work for organizations that speak the truth. I took
my beliefs and my work to the Voice of America
so I could speak directly to the Iranian people, just.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Like the other journalists Grant and Libby Leo described. Satarre
was aware of the personal risk that came with this decision.
Speaker 9 (18:46):
When we launched our first television program in two thousand
and three, I was anchor and managing editor for that program,
and I was really the face of the Voice of
America Persian. That was a time when my colleagues would
not even put their names on the credits. And from
that year on I was a target of smear campaigns
(19:08):
by the Iranan government. I have been designated in Iran
as the enemy of the state, and I received death threats.
I'm on their blacklist. I can never go back to Iran.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Satari had been at Voice of America for twenty five years,
and she expected smear campaigns and threats of retaliation from
the Iranian regime. That was par for the course, but
she didn't expect it from her own agency. Her internal
alarm started to go off even before Pack took over.
Speaker 9 (19:38):
It was September of twenty nineteen I received an email
from a newly appointed State Department official who was a
Trump loyalist. The email was in reference to what and
how the coverage should be done. I thought that there
was a clear attempt to wanting to change the coverage.
I immediately alerted my supervisor and the head of programming
(19:59):
and the leadership. I responded to the email, letting the
person know that I could discuss process, but not editorial.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
There are other issues Satari brings to management's attention before
Pack's arrival, incidents where she feels the administration is trying
to run interference on her team's news coverage. But when
Pack takes charge, her concerns skyrocket. One of the first
people who Pack fires is the standards editor for Voice
of America, whose job it is to make sure the
(20:29):
news coverage complies with journalistic ethics. Right away, satarre files
a complaint. It's a move that involves some risk.
Speaker 9 (20:38):
I was warned by my colleagues at USAGM and at VOA,
and from people from outside that I should be careful
that I was going to get retaliated against for raising
these issues.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
And those people are right. Retaliation is quick.
Speaker 9 (20:57):
They had asked obviously of the Inspector General all files
complaints ever received in the agency dude during the last
fifteen years about me. They went over my emails from
twenty twelve and they were looking for anything that could
be used to initiate a dismissal process against me.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Pack's team then tells Satare they have found six anonymous complaints,
all recently filed, which they say are grounds for her suspension.
They include allegations that she's fabricated her resume and used
her connections to hook up friends and family members with jobs,
and they go public with these so called findings by
(21:39):
sharing them with conservative news outlets. A spokesperson for Pack
tells the press quote, this is the fox guarding the
hen house. Sigg's record of mismanagement and deception are irrefutable.
None of these complaints have any substance for Satare. The
personal attacks and their effect on her professional reputation are
(22:00):
one thing, but worse is the self inflicted damage the
agency is doing to its own mission.
Speaker 9 (22:07):
This is the best gift for the Iranian regime. They
used to continuously speak about how you know, there was
turmoil inside VOA. There was you know, infighting and anything
that they could find, and this was an easy way
for them to say, look, we told you so, and
(22:28):
that was the worst weapon they could use against the
Voice of America.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
By the end of August twenty twenty, Michael Pack has
shown that he can be incredibly effective at purging people.
Satare is under investigation, Libby is out, and many others.
But there's still a major thorn in his side. Grant Turner,
the man in charge of the money.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
They were aware that I was raising issues of a
big concern. They knew that what they were doing was wrong.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
How exactly did Michael Pack and his team know what
they were doing was wrong because their CFO kept telling them.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Part of being a whistleblower is you have to tell
your management chain what they're doing wrong. The Hill was
already reaching out to them, saying, we want to talk
with you who have concerns about stuff that's happening.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
The Hill as in Capitol Hill, which means Congress is
getting involved. David's side is an attorney with the Government
Accountability Project who works with whistleblowers, including Grant.
Speaker 10 (23:35):
As CFO, he's in charge of the budget, He's in
charge of asking the Congress for money and spending the
money the Congress appropriates, and time and again, he went
to mister packin said, look, you know you've decided to
cancel an agency's funding, but you can't do that.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
But Pack and his team are creative, and they finally
come up with a way to fire Grant along with
four others.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
They came across this solution that if they pulled all
of our security clearances and said that we shouldn't have
security clearances, that they could remove us from our jobs.
Our position description said Grant, for you to serve as CFO,
you need to have a security clearance. So if they
pulled the security clearance, then I couldn't serve in my
job anymore. And that ended up being kind of this
(24:20):
magic wand that they kind of wave over the half
dozen senior staff at the agency and get us out
of the way.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
It's a nifty bureaucratic catch twenty two. They can only
be employed in their roles if they have security clearances
for access to classified information, and management decides that their
security clearances are out of date. In fact, Pack says
that Grant and others are responsible for systemic security failures
at the agency, and even goes so far as to
(24:50):
imply that they might be in cahoots with foreign governments.
He alludes to this theory on the conservative news website
The Federalist.
Speaker 8 (25:00):
The security lapses are I think pretty shocking. Foreign intelligence
agencies from beginning at the creation of these agencies have
been interested in penetrating them. To be a journalist is
a great cover for a spy. This agency is right
all these problems. Yeah, there's way more than I thought.
Speaker 10 (25:15):
David's side, to be escorted from the building that you've
worked in for ten years and told you have no
more duties than to stay home is a horrible experience
for anyone, let alone someone with a sterling reputation who
had no reason to be victimized the way he was.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
I'm sure that doesn't feel great, but for Grant it's
actually a moment of mixed emotions.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
There was some relief because every day you're just observing
all this kind of you know, incompetence and carnage around
you and just kind of nastiness, and it was just, frankly,
a relief not to have to see these really awful humans.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
That relief is short lived, because Grant knows he can't
just walk away.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
It wasn't just going to happen under cover of darkness
and no one would ever know the horrible things that
were going on. I wasn't just going to let them
wreck the agency and sit silently by. I talked to
the Government Accountability Project. I wanted to make sure I
did it the right way, and I wanted to make
(26:29):
sure very much that it was bipartisan.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
So Grant meets with whistleblower attorney David's side and decides
to file an official complaint against Pack, and all things considered,
Grant feels pretty confident.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
I wasn't too fearful. I don't know if it's because
maybe I'm a little bit older, I'm further long in
my career, or because the volume has already been turned
to eleven right.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
And also Grant's not alone. In addition to the managers
fired alongside him for security clearances, Satare also files a
complaint with the Government Accountability Project over wrongful retaliation. Satare.
Speaker 9 (27:09):
Again, I wasn't by myself, and that was very very good,
very comforting. We had two excellent lawyers, one was Mark
Zaid and one was David's side, with them on our side.
On my side, I knew that we were going to get.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Through David's side.
Speaker 10 (27:28):
We represent well over two dozen Voice of America and
USAGM clients during this period, and without exception, each of
them were victimized for doing nothing, for doing their job.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill are alarmed to hear
what's going on inside USAGM and this effort to turn
the agency into a partisan mouthpiece. Ironically, it becomes a
rare moment of bipartisanship.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Some of the people who are most infuriated with Michael
Pack and his management of the agency were the Republicans
on the Hill, people who've worked with our agency for
many years and realize that it's important.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
In September twenty twenty, Democratic Congressman Elliott Angele and Republican
Michael McCall convene a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs
Committee where they hear testimony from Grant and his colleagues
after three months of turmoil at the agency. After being
fired after being attacked, Grant gets to say his piece publicly.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
In the two and a half months I worked under
mister Pack, he repeatedly breached the firewall designed to protect
journalists and editors from political influence. Based on what I've witnessed,
from small issues to very big ones, I don't believe
mister Pack and his team came to run the agency.
I don't think they even like it. This just isn't
what normal people do.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
We obviously had a lot of support from Congress across
the aisles. Libby lu Grill was so grounded as a
person that he was able to take things in stride
and just keep moving forward.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Satarre sick.
Speaker 9 (29:12):
He was actually the only person who went in front
of Congress and testified. He was brave to do that,
and Grant represented everyone.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
David folkenflick again.
Speaker 6 (29:30):
When you had people come forward out of the shadows
and speak for the record by their name and give
voice to what was happening inside and present this not
as deep state, faceless bureaucrats, but human beings who have
given years of their life to the federal government. It
caires a different tone.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
As for Michael Pack, he defies a Congressional subpoena and
he doesn't appear, But thanks to Grant's testimony, Congress feels
they have plenty of material to make a decision to investigate.
Speaker 6 (30:03):
It allowed lawmakers in Congress who had concerns to articulate them. Also,
it was bipartisan at times. Michael McFall of Texas on
the House side, had real concerns about the independence and
voice of America and it then triggered, of course, serious
investigations from the Inspector General's office at State Department.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
The courts also get involved. One of the lawsuits filed
on behalf of Grant Satare and the rest of the
team results in a federal judge ruling that Pack's executive
actions at the agency were unconstitutional.
Speaker 6 (30:35):
When lawsuits were filed, it allowed a federal judge to
weigh in and say that not only what Pack was
doing was wrong, but unconstitutional, and that really had a
clarion call. A federally appointed judge, in absolutely unmistakable terms,
is articulating that what is happening is against the American
(30:58):
Constitution because it's violating the free speech precepts embedded in
the notion of what journalists do, and even when they
work for the federal government in this case, especially because
they worked for the federal government.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
When Joe Biden takes office in January twenty twenty one,
he has a long to do list but close to
the top of that list is USAGM prison.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Biden's first act was to remove Michael Pack. He did
that within the first hour after his inauguration.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
And a little over a month later, Grant Is reinstalled
as the CFO.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Ultimately, it was the election that mattered. If President Trump
had had won the election in November, Michael Pack would
still be there.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Satare is also cleared to return.
Speaker 9 (31:45):
I got a letter from Labor Relations saying that they're
coming back.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Satari is cleared of all of the allegations that have
been leveled against her, including each of the anonymous complaints
which are proven to be baseless, and she gets to
rejoin Voice of America.
Speaker 9 (32:02):
I'm currently serving as director of Program Review and special
assistant to the Program Director at USAGM's Voice of America.
It was as if I had never left.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
On May tenth, twenty twenty three, Grant, Satare and their
colleagues got the final validation they needed. That's when the
US Office of the Special Council notified President Biden that
they had determined, after an eighteen month independent investigation, that
the whistleblower reports of abuses by political operatives installed at
(32:38):
the Voice of America, it's sibling networks and its oversight
agency USAGM were true. It's a happy ending, But libbylu
thinks the agency was saved only just in time.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
If the networks had started spewing propaganda, I think that
that would have been disasters. The reason the audiences will
risk their lives to listen to the news that we're
broadcasting is because their own governments are distorting their reality.
So basically, if on the side of the informers, you
(33:18):
also put that propaganda in, then the whole thing is
worthless and they can smell it.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
But Libby also believes there's something about the culture of
USAGM that's stronger than any single person who may try
to bend it to suit a political agenda.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
People that grow up in propagonistic societies they know propaganda.
That's why the truth is so resonant. But the editorial,
the journalists, they had a deep understanding about what they're
doing and why they're doing it, So that would take
longer than Michael Pack to destroy.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
More information has continued to bubble up about the craziness
of Michael Pack's tenure. For example, during his reign in
November twenty twenty it was reported that staffers in his
office building were caught having sex against the windows, and
a video was then leaked to The Daily Caller. Employees
say they have since learned Pack's team tried to point
(34:19):
the fingers at the agency's civil servants, claiming without evidence
that the couple must have worked at Voice of America.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
The Pack folks try to suggest that it was VOA.
Just when you think it, you can't get any weirder,
you know, they throw in a sex tape.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
But even more shocking are the details that have surfaced
since about how Michael Pack and his team tried to
purge the agency of so called deep state hacks like
Grant Turner, Libby lu and Satare sig.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
You spent a couple million dollars on outside attorneys to
compile a dossier on me. The agency paid McGuire Woods
at one point six million dollars.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
McGuire Woods, a white shoe law firm.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
To over sixty people working on this project. From maguire Woods,
it reading thousands of my emails. They go back years
to find some kind of dirt on me that they
could use.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
David's side again, he.
Speaker 10 (35:14):
Had the bills from the law firm to see what
they did for all that money. They built thousands of
hours of attorney time at hundreds of dollars an hour,
to find nothing of significance that in any way heard
mister Turner.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
The last day that the Trump people were there, they
sent out about five hundred pages of information they had
gathered on me to the Trump loyalists and the LGBT
hate group that they put on our grantee networks boards.
I happened to be gay, and they sent out this
(35:49):
five hundred page dossier to them with all these kind
of false accusations about me.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Satare was also the subject of one of these dossiers.
Speaker 9 (35:58):
I found out that the Pack team put together one
thousand pages of document about fifteen years of my work
at THEA and I was saddened by the money that
was spent at the time that they put and the
focus that they had on this.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
For Satare, her own experience living under a repressive regime
gave her some perspective on the era of Michael Pack
at USAGM, but it wasn't enough to change her mind
about American democracy.
Speaker 9 (36:34):
I think that when you have gone through political persecution
in your country of origin, you develop a very strong
foundation and resilience, and this was not something that I
could not handle. But I still believe in the basic
values of a democratic political system in the United States.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
But another reason is the fight against Michael Pack's process
was a collaborative one, and no one was truly on
their own. Here's grant.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
I've been really happy that people who care about the
agency knew about it and were trying to do stuff
about it, and care that we took these actions, and
I think that's been enough.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Next time on The Whistleblowers. In our final episode, we
talked to two dissenters at the highest levels of government,
including one who worked just down the hall from the
Oval office. In both of their cases, breaking ranks didn't
just mean getting sidelined. It meant getting chased into the wilderness.
(38:06):
The Whistleblowers is a production of iHeart Podcasts in partnership
with Best Case Studios and Arc Media. It was hosted
by me Miles Taylor and written by me Isabel Evans
and Adam Pinkis. Isabel Evans is also our producer. Associate
producers are Hanahlieblowitz Lockhart and Ashley Warren. Darcy peakele Is
consulting producer. Zach Herman is the VP of Development of
(38:26):
ARC Media. This episode was edited by Max Michael Miller.
Original music is by James Newberry. Executive producers are Me
Miles Taylor, Adam Pinkss for Best Case Studios and Barrick
Goodman for ARC Media. Beth Ann Mcaluso is our executive
producer for iHeartMedia, along with Ali Perry. Special thanks to
Kevin Famm, all of our contributors and interviewees, and our
(38:47):
intern Anna Levitt At A big thanks to the teams
at Government Accountability Project and Whistleblower Aide, two of the
best organizations for government and private sector whistleblowers seeking legal support.
Follow and Rate the Whistle on the podcast site of
your choice to hear what these whistleblowers and others have
to say about what they believe will happen under a
(39:07):
second Trump administration or in the White House of AMaGA
Successor you can pick up my new book, Blowback from
Simon and Schuster
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