A federal appeals court on Friday turned down a fired FBI contractor who was seeking to revive her lawsuit against the government. Sibel Edmonds said she was fired from her job as a wiretap translator because she told superiors she suspected a co-worker was leaking information to targets of an ongoing FBI probe.
The FBI said it fired her because she committed security violations and disrupted the office.
In its judgment, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld a lower court ruling from last summer that Edmonds' claims might expose government secrets that could damage national security.
The appellate judges held a hearing in the case two weeks ago that they closed to the public over the objections of Edmonds' American Civil Liberties Union attorneys. That challenge was supported by media organizations including The Associated Press.
The Justice Department's inspector general said Edmonds' allegations to her superiors about a co-worker ``raised serious concerns that, if true, could potentially have extremely damaging consequences for the FBI.''
The inspector general concluded that the FBI did not adequately investigate the allegations and that Edmonds was retaliated against for speaking out.
On the Net:
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit: http://www.cadc.uscourts.gov