CASE CLOSED

Death of Federal Whistleblower Officially Ruled a Suicide

Phillip Haney, a longtime Department of Homeland Security official, criticized the Obama administration in his 2016 book.

The controversial death of former Department of Homeland Security official Philip Haney has officially been ruled a suicide. Haney was a prominent whistleblower during the Obama administration, alleging the government had not sufficiently investigated threats of international terrorism, which he chronicled in a 2016 book See Something, Say Nothing: A Homeland Security Officer Exposes the Government’s Submission to Jihad. After he was found dead in his car with a gunshot wound in February 2020 near Sacramento, his suicide generated conspiracies among right-wing entities that he had been murdered for speaking out. FBI investigators ultimately concluded the suicide note matched Haney’s handwriting, and the gun used in his death was traced to him as well. The Mercury News reports that Haney, then 66, also gave away his potted plants the day before his body was discovered. “After a thorough review of the evidence collected and processed by the Sheriff’s Office and FBI, the Sheriff’s Office has determined the manner of Mr. Haney’s death to be suicide,” a statement from the Amador County Sheriff’s office said. “This case has been classified as closed.”