Frederic Whitehurst

Frederic "Fred" Whitehurst was a Supervisory Special Agent in the Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory from 1986 to 1998, where he went public as a whistleblower to bring attention to procedural errors and misconduct.

Whitehurst served as an intelligence specialist at the Americal base in Đức Phổ, Vietnam during the early seventies. He was tasked with reviewing seized documents and destroying any that had no military value. Working with translator Sergeant Nguyen Trung Hieu and following his advice, he saved two diaries written by Dr. Đặng Thùy Trâm, a civilian doctor working for North Vietnam. He kept them for 35 years, with the intention of eventually returning them to Trâm's family, if possible.

Dr. Whitehurst received a Ph.D. in chemistry from Duke University, a J.D. from Georgetown University and joined the FBI in 1982 and served as a Supervisory Special Agent in the FBI crime lab from 1986-1998. Dr. Whitehurst practices criminal law in Bethel, North Carolina, and is a commissioner of the town of Bethel.

While employed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory, the FBI officially rated Dr. Whitehurst as the leading national and international expert in the science of explosives and explosives residue. He investigated, uncovered and reported scientific misconduct which forced the FBI crime lab to agree to forty major reforms, including undergoing an accreditation process. During this period, Whitehurst was forced to defend himself from retaliation by the FBI by hiring Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, a Washington, D.C. law firm specializing in defending whistleblowers.

Dr. Whitehurst currently serves as the Executive Director of the Forensic Justice Project (FJP). The FJP was formed in 1998 as a project of the National Whistleblower Center, a non-profit 501(c)3 organization. The goal of the FJP is to lead a national effort to accomplish the following:

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