According to Lindley’s lawsuit, during a meeting shortly after he was fired, “O’Brien first claimed it was for performance reasons, which plaintiff responded was unlikely given that Gallup had lauded him for his outstanding performance during his first year.”
“O’Brien next claimed Gallup was firing plaintiff because he had supposedly refused a request to retrieve some documentation from Gallup’s computer system to assist Gallup in responding to a procurement ethics survey,” the lawsuit continues.
“Plaintiff responded that he had in fact done everything he could to find such documentation, but that he found that the documentation had been deleted from Gallup’s computer system, and he had immediately informed his superiors of that fact. Finally, O’Brien admitted unambiguously the real reason that Gallup had fired plaintiff, stating: ‘When you start talking about going to the Department of Justice, I don’t trust you anymore.’”
The senior Gallup official, though, said Lindley’s termination went differently. That official told TheDC that Lindley “said he wanted to be fired so he wouldn’t have to pay back his relocation costs to the company.”
Lindley allegedly “said his manager would be doing him a favor if she fired him.”
Neither Lindley’s lawyers nor a representative for Holder’s DOJ responded to requests for comment in response to these charges.
The allegations from the senior Gallup official come on the heels of the release of documents showing that the federal agencies that contracted with Gallup praised the pollster — directly contradicting charges from Lindley and the DOJ — and internal Gallup emails showing senior Obama re-election campaign adviser David Axelrod attempting to subtly intimidate the respected polling firm when its numbers were unfavorable to the president’s re-election campaign. After Gallup ignored Axelrod’s invitation to explain their processes at the White House, the DOJ joined Lindley’s lawsuit.
The DOJ has yet to serve Gallup with its complaint, which means the polling company can’t officially respond to the allegations.
