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Staff

Nick Schwellenbach

Senior Investigator

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Areas of Expertise

Office of Special Counsel (OSC), whistleblower issues, intelligence community, FOIA

Nick Schwellenbach rejoined POGO in February 2017. Previously, he was the communications director at the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, the main federal agency in charge of protecting whistleblowers, during a period when it won bipartisan praise for restoring trust in the agency. He was POGO’s director of investigations from 2010 to 2012 and from 2017 to 2019, and was an investigator from 2004 through 2008. He also was a senior fiscal policy analyst with the Center for Effective Government, a staff writer with the Center for Public Integrity, and a reporter-research for Harvard University's Nieman Watchdog. Nick received his B.A. in history from the University of Texas-Austin and his M.A. in journalism from American University. He has been published in The Washington Post, TIME Magazine, The Daily Beast, Yahoo News, Mother Jones, Texas Observer, and other media outlets.

Nick’s work for POGO on excessive secrecy covering up serious misconduct by Justice Department attorneys won the Society of Professional Journalists-D.C. Chapter’s Robert D.G. Lewis Watchdog Award in 2015, its highest prize. An investigative article he co-wrote with Peter Stockton for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on the risks of poorly secured nuclear materials was listed as an honorable mention in the book, Best American Science and Nature Writing 2007. He has led investigations into dangerous conditions inside immigrant detention centers, the revolving door at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), labor trafficking by the U.S. military’s subcontractors in Iraq, whistleblower retaliation across numerous agencies, mismanagement of the Joint Strike Fighter F-35 program, faulty missile defense systems, and many other topics.

Latest Work

  • The Promise and Peril of Fintech Companies in Small Business Lending Programs

    testimony | December 14, 2022

  • Hundreds of Oath Keepers Have Worked for DHS, Leaked List Shows

    investigation | December 12, 2022

  • The Great Pandemic Swindle: Feds Botched Review of Billions in Suspect PPP Loans

    investigation | October 6, 2022

  • DHS Watchdog Staff Call on Biden to Fire Inspector General Cuffari

    investigation | September 23, 2022

  • DHS Watchdog Nixed Alert to Congress About Purged January 6 Texts, New Docs Show

    investigation | August 11, 2022

  • Missing: More January 6 Texts Sought by Congress

    investigation | July 28, 2022

  • DHS Watchdog Failed to Sound Alarm For Months on Secret Service's Purged Jan. 6 Texts

    investigation | July 21, 2022

  • Sidelining Small Businesses

    investigation | June 24, 2022

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In The News

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    May 03, 2021

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    April 30, 2021

  • New system expected to cut down on pandemic government loan fraud

    April 29, 2021

  • High number of Trump political appointees sought permanent jobs in final year

    April 10, 2021

  • Trump officials hindered at least nine key oversight probes, watchdogs said. Some may finally be released in coming months.

    March 22, 2021

  • Trump's “sabotage” plan: Watchdog groups want to know who was “burrowed” into career jobs

    February 25, 2021

  • A MAGA ambassador violated the Hatch Act. Biden must decide what to do about it.

    February 18, 2021

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