Case: 20-1451 Document: 52 Page: 1 Filed: 04/07/2021 NOTE: This disposition is nonprecedential. United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ______________________ JANE SPHATT, Petitioner v. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, Respondent ______________________ 2020-1451 ______________________ Petition for review of the Merit Systems Protection Board in No. NY-0752-19-0146-I-1. ______________________ Decided: April 7, 2021 ______________________ ALAN EDWARD WOLIN, Wolin & Wolin, Jericho, NY, for petitioner. TANYA KOENIG, Commercial Litigation Branch, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, Washing- ton, DC, for respondent. Also represented by JEFFREY B. CLARK, ROBERT EDWARD KIRSCHMAN, JR., LOREN MISHA PREHEIM. ______________________ Before LOURIE, TARANTO, and STOLL, Circuit Judges. Case: 20-1451 Document: 52 Page: 2 Filed: 04/07/2021 2 SPHATT v. DHS TARANTO, Circuit Judge. Jane Sphatt was removed from her position as an Im- migration Officer at the Department of Homeland Secu- rity’s United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (the Agency) in April 2019 for misuse of her government position and government credentials, lack of candor, and unauthorized use of a government database. The Merit Systems Protection Board affirmed the Agency’s decision, finding all four charges supported by the evidence and the penalty of removal reasonable. J.A. 7–68; Sphatt v. Dep’t of Homeland Security, No. NY-0752-19-0146-I-1, 2020 WL 71044 (M.S.P.B. Jan. 2, 2020). The Board also rejected Ms. Sphatt’s affirmative defenses, including that the removal was tainted by procedural defects and was based on con- duct that occurred too long ago. We affirm. I Ms. Sphatt began working for the Office of Security and Integrity (OSI) within the Agency in 2002 and eventually became a Senior Immigration Services Officer. In March 2016, the Agency received an internal complaint that, in May 2015, in connection with an immigration matter in- volving Ms. Sphatt’s close friend, Jing Pei Mao, and his wife Ghun Feng Gan, Ms. Sphatt had included her official job title and a photocopy of her government credentials when submitting an affidavit to attest to the bona-fide na- ture of Mr. Mao and Ms. Gan’s marriage. The complaint came from an Agency employee handling the immigration matter of Mr. Mao and Ms. Gan. The same employee also filed a second complaint after Ms. Sphatt, on March 17, 2016, again included her official title and her credentials when submitting another affidavit in the same matter in support of Mr. Mao and Ms. Gan. In both documents, Ms. Sphatt also provided her government e-mail address and office phone number as preferred contact information for any further inquiries. Case: 20-1451 Document: 52 Page: 3 Filed: 04/07/2021 SPHATT v. DHS 3 Following an internal investigation, on May 2, 2017, a Disciplinary Review Board of the OSI issued a Notice of Proposed Seven Day Suspension to Ms. Sphatt for misuse of her government position and misuse of government cre- dentials. J.A. 239, 1057–63. On June 27, 2017, while Ms. Sphatt’s suspension notice was pending review, the Agency received a separate complaint stating that, during the in- ternal investigation, Ms. Sphatt made certain representa- tions that conflicted with information she provided in employment security …
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