The Inspector General (IG) of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recently resigned following years of investigation into her conduct.
Laura Wertheimer was in charge of overseeing the agency created to regulate the secondary mortgage market in the wake of the 2008 housing crisis.
One of the main functions of an IG is to conduct audits and evaluate the agency it oversees.
The IG's annual number of completed audits dropped significantly soon after Wertheimer took office after her appointment by President Obama in 2014. And whistleblower complaints against Wertheimer reportedly started coming in. They ranged from abuse of authority, privacy act violations, age and gender discrimination, and whistleblower retaliation.
Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wisc) called for an investigation and accountability of IG Wertheimer as far back as 2017.
In April 2021, the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency’s (CIGIE) Integrity Committee (IC) completed a report that substantiated some of the allegations against Wertheimer.
Soon after, Senators Grassley and Johnson asked President Biden to remove Wertheimer from her position.
Instead, Wertheimer resigned her position.
I urge President Biden to quickly nominate a qualified individual to the post as soon as practical. The FHFA has been without a qualified IG for far too long already
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa)
Order "Slanted: How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism" by Sharyl Attkisson today at Harper Collins, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, IndieBound, Bookshop!
Unfortunately her Chief Counsel, who was named in the report as having obstructed, will be named acting IG. Justice has not been served.