Ex-Biden nuclear official who restored Oppenheimer clearance alleges conspiracy to oust him over sex harassment allegations

WASHINGTON — A former top nuclear security official — who helped posthumously restore the security clearance of atomic bomb architect J.Robert Oppenheimer — is alleging he was forced out of his job in a retribution campaign based on bogus sex harassment allegations.Frank Rose, who served as the No.

2 at the Energy Department’s nuclear security agency until April of last year, is suing a former colleague whom he claims in court papers “strategically leveraged” their professional relationship at a think tank “only to later turn against him” after he’d helped her get a job in the Biden administration.The colleague, Kathryn Hewitt, then conspired to smear him in the press as a “predator,” according to his defamation complaint filed in Alexandria City Circuit Court on March 27.“This is an action for defamation arising out of intentionally fabricated, false, and politically motivated statements made by Hewitt alleging that she was sexually harassed by Rose while employed at Brookings Institution,” the filing stated.Rose is also alleging in a separate civil suit filed the same day in DC federal court that the National Nuclear Security Administration, where he and Hewitt worked, had not informed him what his workplace misconduct accusations were — or even given him an interview with investigators — before he was kicked to the curb.“Since his forced resignation, Rose has been rejected from applications he submitted for more than 20 positions for which he was highly qualified and has lost lucrative professional opportunities,” according to the lawsuit against the Department of Energy and NNSA.It added: “NNSA and DOE’s actions caused NNSA and DOE employees and energy industry colleagues to believe that Rose engaged in sexual harassment.”On his way out the door, Rose, the NNSA’s principal deputy administrator, was subject to a scathing Politico piece that hinted at the sex and workplace misconduct accusations.Female co-workers allegedl...