BUTLER COUNTY, IOWA – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is demanding the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) end all retaliation against Afolabi Siwajuola, a whistleblower who reported the Biden administration’s ATF for its illegal misclassification scheme and improper hiring practices.
“Mr. Siwajuola told my office that as a U.S. Army veteran, his experience working at the ATF after becoming a whistleblower during the Biden administration is on the same level, and some days worse than his experience serving in Baghdad, Iraq. Mr. Siwajuola told my staff that when serving in Iraq he could trust that his Army squadmates and leadership would have his back, but Biden ATF leadership had instead ‘put a target’ on his,” Grassley wrote in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and ATF Acting Director Daniel Driscoll.
Siwajuola disclosed he has suffered half a decade of severe retaliation after reporting the Biden ATF for:
Despite the Biden administration’s persistent retaliation against Siwajuola, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) presented him with the 2023 Public Servant Award, highlighting his work to bring “light to ATF’s longstanding (and illegal) practice of deliberately misclassifying upper-level law enforcement positions.” In August 2025, OSC also recommended ATF provide Siwajuola a monetary award for his whistleblower disclosures.
Grassley is calling on the Trump DOJ and ATF to immediately halt all retaliation against Siwajuola, fully and fairly investigate Siwajuola’s whistleblower retaliation allegations, hold the bureaucrats who retaliated against Siwajuola accountable and follow OSC’s recommendation to reward Siwajuola for saving millions of taxpayer dollars.
Read Grassley’s full letter HERE.
Overview of Retaliation Against Siwajuola:
According to Siwajuola, Biden ATF officials – including former ATF Director Steven Dettelbach and former ATF Deputy Director Marvin Richardson – waged an internal campaign against him to ruin his career, reputation and livelihood as punishment for making legally protected whistleblower disclosures. Siwajuola has stated the ATF’s retaliation is ongoing.
The retaliation against Siwajuola included ostracism, intimidation, negative performance reviews, demeaning comments, retaliatory investigations and demotions. The Biden administration also assigned Siwajuola to report to Ralph Bittelari, then-Chief of the ATF Human Resources Operations Division, who was one of the individuals Siwajuola reported for actively engaging in the misclassification scheme.
Additionally, in June 2022, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigated alleged threats made against Siwajuola following his whistleblower disclosures. During an interview, an ATF witness told FBI agents that an ATF special agent had said Siwajuola had “a mark on his back.” Additionally, the ATF witness stated concerns that, if Grassley’s staff were to contact the witnesses and the witness spoke openly about the ATF, the witness would lose their job. The FBI referred the alleged threats to the ATF’s Internal Affairs Division (IAD) later that month, but Siwajuola alleges no one from IAD followed up with him about the investigation.
Siwajuola also informed Grassley’s staff that the current Deputy Assistant Director for ATF Human Resources, Lakisha Gregory, has continued ATF’s retaliation against him. According to Siwajuola, the ATF IAD recently opened a retaliatory investigation into him for creating a hostile work environment, poor judgement, “general misconduct” and “behavior unbecoming of a federal employee” after he declined to appoint an employee – who is an alleged friend of Deputy Assistant Director Gregory – to a GS-14 Human Resources position, which they weren’t qualified to hold.
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