The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in the Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C. alleges workers were subjected to a "Kafkaesque system" of retribution, and that one federal official even joked about assassinating the current Homeland Security inspector general's predecessor.
Inspectors general were created in the aftermath of Watergate to work as independent watchdogs to police for waste, fraud and abuse inside large federal agencies and Cabinet departments. The independent watchdogs have their own oversight body called the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency.