WASHINGTON, D.C. | September 17, 2021 — Jane Turner, National Whistleblower Center (NWC) Board Member and FBI whistleblower, was interviewed this week on CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper about the FBI’s mishandling of the Larry Nassar investigation and her experiences blowing the whistle on the FBI. Turner appeared alongside fellow retired FBI Special Agent Jeff Lanza.
Turner, who joined the FBI in 1978, led the FBI’s highly successful program combating sex crimes against women and children on Indian Reservations in North Dakota. From 1998 to 1999, Turner discovered and exposed failures to properly investigate child abuse cases at the FBI’s child crime program and was retaliated against. Represented by NWC Board Chair and co-founder Stephen Kohn, Turner challenged her retaliation in federal court, winning her case in 2007. In July 2021, Turner began speaking out about the agency’s failures in a Rolling Stone interview where she described the issues she witnessed and the likelihood that those issues persist.
In her CNN interview, Turner reiterated these points explaining that she “blew the whistle 20 years ago about the same thing, except it was on Indian reservations, and they took no action,” and that “[i]t was sent in to the [Inspectors General], to the [Attorneys General], and to the FBI – they did nothing.”
Turner continued, “Most agents do not find this type of crime sexy, it’s not what they signed up for. They want to bust down doors. This is not in their wheelhouse; they don’t want it in their wheelhouse. I had agents tell me that they’re just not interested in doing this work.” Turner notes that current FBI Director Christopher Wray is likely well-meaning, but his executive staff will remain, concluding that “the culture has got to change, the culture is not good.”
NWC celebrates Turner and joins her in urging the FBI to implement the necessary changes to end these egregious and systemic failures to protect survivors of child sexual abuse.
For more information, please contact Nick Younger at nick.younger@whistleblowers.org.
