Senate panel to consider Biden nominee accused of abusive behavior 

The Senate Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday is scheduled to consider President Biden’s nominee to serve as the Archivist of the United States despite a whistleblower complaint made public last week accusing the nominee of abusive behavior.  

The nominee, Colleen Shogan, faced a withering round of questions from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) when she appeared before the panel on Feb. 28 over tweets she made from her personal Twitter account.  

Now, Hawley is demanding records from the Congressional Research Service (CRS), where Shogan previously worked, after a whistleblower contacted his office to accuse her of engaging in “a pattern of abusive, retaliatory, and partisan conduct,” according to a letter Hawley sent Tuesday to CRS Director Mary Mazanec. 

Hawley wrote that the “Dr. Shogan allegedly made unsolicited statements in support of Democratic candidates in the workplace” and that the whistleblower claimed that “Shogan colluded with her colleagues at CRS to undermine the whistleblower’s promotion” and to “demoralize” the employee “in an apparent effort to run her out of CRS.” 

He made the request for her records ahead of a vote the Homeland Security Committee plans to take on the nominee Wednesday morning.

The Hill obtained the letter after it was sent to all members of the Homeland Security panel.

At a hearing last month, the Missouri senator questioned Shogan about tweets she made from her personal account, such as one in January of 2021 calling on Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to “stay in your own lane” in response to his challenge of Joe Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania in the 2020 election.  

Shogan also speculated on Twitter in January of 2021 that Trump would pardon himself before leaving office and said she hoped that Trump would see his vetoes overridden by Congress before leaving the White House.   

Hawley and Shogan clashed at the Homeland Security Committee on Feb. 28 when the nominee repeatedly insisted that her personal Twitter account, which she had locked before testifying, was not political.  

“You lied to us under oath,” Hawley fumed after Shogan refused to provide a record of her tweets to the committee. “Now you’re sitting here stonewalling, not answering questions about public posts that you made.” 

Hawley now is taking aim at Shogan over her workplace conduct at the Congressional Research Service. 

He referred the whistleblower’s allegations about the nominee to Homeland Security Committee Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the committee’s ranking member, last week.  

Aides to Peters, Paul and Hawley met with Shogan Monday afternoon to discuss the allegations, according to a source familiar with the meeting.  

Shogan has declined to discuss the allegations in full detail, according to Hawley.  

“When asked about these allegations, Dr. Shogan indicated that she lacked records requested and directed my office to CRS. Accordingly, I am now reaching out to CRS to request these records,” Hawley wrote in his letter to Mazanec, the research service’s director. 

Hawley is also pressing for more detail about the whistleblower’s allegation that Shogan, the author of eight murder mystery novels, promoted one of her books on federal property.  

“The whistleblower alleges that Dr. Shogan attempted to organize signing events for her own book on federal property during work hours, for commercial gain, in violation of existing policies,” Hawley wrote.  

He noted the event was for a book titled “Stabbing in the Senate,” in which a senator named “Langsford” is murdered.  

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) is a current member of the Senate. 

Hawley is asking the director of the Congressional Research Service to provide any archived communications related to any actual or proposed event for Shogan’s books, including “Stabbing in the Senate.”  

He wants records of grievances filed against Shogan with the Library of Congress or the Congressional Research Service and a record of all communications between the nominee and any union representing Library of Congress employees related to the whistleblower’s application for promotion and accommodations for a disability.  

Hawley’s letter on Tuesday follows one he sent to Peters and Paul last week first reporting the whistleblower’s allegations.  

“Dr. Shogan allegedly colluded with others in the office to force the whistleblower, a woman with a disability, to take a detail assignment that worsened her mobility and health,” he wrote to the panel’s chairman, flagging allegations that the nominee undermined the whistleblower’s promotion and suppressed reports she authored requested by Congress. 

Shogan’s nomination to head the National Archives and Records Administration stalled last year after the Homeland Security Committee deadlocked, 7-7, along party lines when it voted on her nomination.  

Democrats now control a one-seat majority on the committee after expanding their majority to 51 seats in the 2022 midterm election.  

–Updated at 8:29 a.m.