Attorneys from the Compass Rose Legal Group, who represented whistleblower David Grusch in his complaint to the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) regarding harassment he says he received during his investigation of a supposed UAP crash retrieval program within the Department of Defense, have issued a statement saying they have ended their formal association with the former intelligence officer.
This move comes just four days after Grusch revealed to the public the supposed existence of what he described as a crash retrieval program designed to collect and reverse engineer craft of “non-human origin” dating back at least ninety years.
The ICIG complaint filed by Compass Rose on behalf of Grusch alleged that people within the government retaliated against the former UAP Task Force analyst for his efforts to investigate and ultimately disclose the alleged program to members of Congress.
The formal statement from Grusch’s former attorneys, which was released on Friday, June 9th, states:
“Compass Rose Legal Group has successfully concluded its representation of former client David Grusch on matters limited to his reasonable belief that elements of the Intelligence Community improperly withheld or concealed alleged classified information from the U.S. Congress. The firm filed a narrowly-scoped whistleblower disclosure with the Intelligence Community Inspector General (“ICIG”) and associated personnel matters – and had represented Mr. Grusch since February 2022.
“Recent media articles misstate the scope of the firm’s representation and include material misstatements of fact pertaining to our representation, which we have requested be corrected.
“The whistleblower disclosure did not speak to the specifics of the alleged classified information that Mr. Grusch has now publicly characterized, and the substance of that information has always been outside of the scope of Compass Rose’s representation. Compass Rose took no position and takes no position on the contents of the withheld information.
“The ICIG found Mr. Grusch’s assertion that information was inappropriately concealed from Congress to be urgent and credible in response to the filed disclosure. Compass Rose brought this matter to the ICIG’s attention through lawful channels and successfully defended Mr. Grusch against retaliation.
“We wish our former client the very best in the next steps of his journey.
“Andrew P. Bakaj, Esq. and I. Charles McCullough, Esq.”
Notably, the sentence highlighting the fact that “the whistleblower disclosure did not speak to the specifics of the alleged classified information” is the only part of the statement in italics. That same paragraph makes sure to point out that the claims of a crash retrieval and reverse engineering program made by Grusch to reporters Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal, and repeated to reporter Ross Coulthart, “has always been outside of the scope Compass Rose’s representation.”
In a Q&A with Debrief Co-founder Tim McMillan, the former police investigator noted the significance of Compass Rose representing Grusch in his ICIG complaint.
“All of this points to being a very serious matter,” McMillan said, “even though people might have this idea of crashed UFOs and green men in their minds. The real facts of the case are being taken and treated very seriously.”
The statement from Compass Rose also notes that “recent media articles misstate the scope of the firm’s representation and include material misstatements of fact pertaining to our representation, which we have requested be corrected.” To date, The Debrief, which was the first to break the story, has not been contacted by Compass Rose in regard to any requested corrections in their reporting.
Although not expressly included in the statement from Compass Rose, the fact that they say they “brought this matter to the ICIG’s attention through lawful channels and successfully defended Mr. Grusch against retaliation” begs the question as to whether the ICIG complaint has been resolved or is still ongoing.
Either way, this statement seems a strong indication that the well-regarded legal group known for representing clients in this type of ICIG complaint is doing its best to distance itself from the exceptional claims made by Grusch moving forward.
[UPDATE June 10, 2023, 8:00 am EST] The Debrief has reached out to Grusch for comment. However, no response was received by the time of publication. The Debrief will provide an update if or when a response is received.
Christopher Plain is the Head Science Writer at The Debrief as well as a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist. Follow and connect with him on Twitter, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.