By Frank Parlato
It began with a headline.
On April 5, 2024, Politico published: “Sexual harassment allegations made against top Biden nuclear official.”
Frank Rose had been the number two official at the National Nuclear Security Administration. Now he was radioactive.
Politico’s audience—policymakers, insiders, the custodians of Washington reputation—understood the implication.
In the months that followed, Rose applied for more than twenty positions within his field. He has been met not only with rejection, but with silence—which, in this climate, is worse. A career erased—not by judgment, but by suggestion. He is now suing the federal government and his accuser, Kathryn “Kate” Hewitt.
The Relationship
Rose supervised Hewitt at the Brookings Institution, from 2018 to 2019. He was Hewitt’s direct supervisor. They worked closely together. She told Politico that this is when the harassment occurred.
After she left Brookings in April 2019, she stayed in contact with her alleged abuser. For two years, she asked Rose for advice. She also asked him for a reference to NNSA. He gave it. It helped her get the job.
At NNSA, from 2021 to 2024, Rose served as the number-two official. The President nominated him. The Senate confirmed him.
As the number 2 official at NNSA, he had administrative authority over Hewitt, who worked in the Office of Communications. They did not work closely together.
She later served a six-month detail with the Department of Defense. Rose had approved her recommendation. When she sought to remain on loan to the Department of Defense beyond the initial six-month period, Rose did not approve it.
She says it was retaliation for a sexual harassment complaint she filed against him at Brookings.
Rose states that his decision concerned understaffing in her department.
Reported as Fact, Never Verified
Though she is anonymous in the Politico story, this passage is about Hewitt:
“One allegation against Rose was that he delayed extending an intergovernmental detail of an NNSA employee who had lodged a sexual harassment complaint against him when they previously worked together at the left-leaning Brookings Institution.”
This sentence contains a factual claim: that a sexual harassment complaint was “lodged” at Brookings.
The article next quotes a Brookings spokesperson saying the institution “doesn’t comment on personnel matters” and that harassment “is clearly prohibited by Brookings’ policies.”
Brookings’ statement, “We don’t comment on personnel matters,” may appear to confirm, but it does not. It is a response that every organization gives when asked about an employee matter—complaints, terminations, promotions—to avoid liability.
They’d say the same thing whether a complaint existed or not.
The second part—”harassment is clearly prohibited by Brookings’ policies”—is meaningless. It’s like saying “we have a policy against stealing.” It provides no evidence regarding whether Rose was accused, investigated, or disciplined.
Politico reported that Hewitt “had lodged a sexual harassment complaint” at Brookings as fact. Brookings gave them no confirmation that a complaint existed. A responsible publication would have written: “Hewitt claims she filed a complaint; Brookings would not confirm or deny whether any complaint was filed.”
Instead, Politico used Brookings’ non-answer as a placeholder for verification—and most readers, seeing the Brookings quote, assumed the complaint was real.
According to Rose’s legal filings, Brookings never informed him of any complaint, let alone disciplined him for it. After Hewitt left, Brookings promoted him.
Eight Anonymous Sources: How Many Were Victims?
The article’s sourcing sounds robust: “eight current and former government officials familiar with the matter, all of whom were granted anonymity.”
What did these eight sources provide?
Based on the article:
- Three sources “recounted” a joke Rose told at a meeting.
- Three sources said Rose “made some women in the office feel uncomfortable.”
- One source said she had “warned female colleagues to be cautious.”
- One source—Hewitt—alleged Rose delayed her detail extension in retaliation for a harassment complaint.
The sources overlap. Some may be the same people. None of the article’s descriptions said that any of the other seven were victims of harassment. Only Hewitt made that claim.
The Joke
From the Politico article:
“At an agency-wide meeting in December with hundreds of NNSA employees in a DOE auditorium or watching virtually, Rose recounted how a female foreign government counterpart had complimented NNSA’s work to him. He responded by telling her: ‘I love you, will you marry me?’ Some employees laughed at the remark, but it did not go over well with others who thought it was inappropriate.”
Rose told a story at an internal meeting about a foreign official who praised the agency’s work.
He said, “I love you, will you marry me?”
That is what three of the eight anonymous sources offered: He told a joke, the kind people use to show thanks, at a staff meeting.
Politico included it as evidence of a pattern of harassment.
If the foreign official had complained to her government, to the State Department, through diplomatic channels, that would be a story. Instead, Politico reported that some NNSA employees thought it was inappropriate. Not the woman to whom it was said—who was not present—but bystanders who heard Rose tell the story.
How many laughed? 50? 200? How many were uncomfortable? 3? 8? If 292 laughed and 5 were uncomfortable, that’s different than if the room went silent.
Three sources “recounted” the joke. Three said Rose made “some women” uncomfortable. One warned colleagues. These could be the same people—Hewitt, maybe one friend. When every source is anonymous, it’s impossible to tell.
Reading carefully, only one of the eight sources claimed to be a harassment victim: Hewitt.
The rest provided secondhand information—they witnessed a joke, heard or gave warnings, or repeated concerns.
Hewitt’s Pattern
According to Rose’s complaint, when supervisors told Hewitt no, she went around them.
At Brookings, she wanted her name on the cover of a report. Brookings’ policy was that research assistants’ credit appears in the acknowledgments. Her supervisor said no. She went to the Vice President.
When instructed to use personal leave for a conference, she bypassed her supervisor and went directly to the Vice President.
Rose counseled her twice. He told her to respect the chain of command.
Years later, when Rose denied her detail extension, she did the same thing—went around him to DOD leadership to pressure him into approving it.
In Her Own Words
Speaking on a panel about women in national security, Hewitt stated:
“This system, the National Security and the intelligence system, was not built by women, with women in mind. So the rules that we have to operate by were not made for us. And so I don’t feel like we should be held to them, to be totally frank with you. Women should not be held to the rules… you don’t have to play by the rules.” — Kate Hewitt (@blondenukegirl)
The Detail Dispute
Hewitt was on temporary assignment—a “detail”—from NNSA to the Department of Defense. In 2023, she wanted to extend it. She needed Rose’s approval.
Rose said no. The Communications office where Hewitt had worked was understaffed—five people doing the work of ten.
According to his complaint, Hewitt went around him to DOD leadership to pressure him into approving it.
Rose approved the extension anyway. He gave her additional time to find a permanent DOD position. She got one.
The timeline:
- 2023: Rose denies Hewitt’s detail extension request
- November 2023: Rose approves the extension
- February 2024: Investigation into Rose begins
- March 2024: Investigation declared “complete” after 17 days—Rose never interviewed
- April 2024: Rose resigns under pressure
- April 5, 2024: Politico publishes Hewitt’s allegations
What Politico reported:
That Rose “delayed extending” the detail of someone who “had lodged a sexual harassment complaint against him”—framing it as retaliation.
What Politico didn’t report:
- NNSA was short-staffed (legitimate reason for denial)
- Rose ultimately approved the extension
- Rose gave Hewitt extra time to find a permanent position
- Hewitt successfully got the permanent DOD job
- Hewitt had a history of going around supervisors who told her no
Politico turned a routine management decision into evidence of retaliation without providing any context.
The Source Politico Didn’t Disclose
According to Rose’s complaint, one likely source was Faiza Frownfelter—a contractor whose contract Rose refused to renew in January 2024.
After the Politico article published, Frownfelter shared it on LinkedIn:
“It’s sad that this doesn’t come as a surprise to so many at the agency. The culture has become very toxic over the last few years and any of us who tried to speak up were badly retaliated against.”
If Frownfelter was a source, readers deserved to know her contract had just been terminated.
The Two-Year Relationship
After leaving Brookings in 2019—where she now claims she was harassed—Hewitt spent two years seeking Rose’s professional help. She requested career advice. She asked for a reference to NNSA. He provided it, helping her secure federal employment.
Politico didn’t report this.
The Deleted Account
After the Politico story published, Hewitt deleted her LinkedIn account—including all messages between her and Rose.
Those messages documented their post-Brookings relationship: the career advice, the job reference request, the ongoing professional contact.
They are included in his lawsuit and reprinted below. Rose preserved copies.
The FBI Background Check
In 2021, Biden nominated Rose for the number two position at NNSA. The FBI conducted a background investigation, interviewing former employers, colleagues, and subordinates.
According to Rose’s complaint, the FBI never mentioned any allegations of sexual harassment.
The Senate confirmed him by voice vote. In the Me Too era, a harassment complaint against a nominee for the nation’s top nuclear security positions would not have gone unnoticed—or unremarked by senators.
Politico never mentioned the background check or the confirmation.
The Unauthorized Source
Rose’s complaint alleges that Hewitt spoke to Politico without Department of Defense authorization—and that Assistant Secretary of Defense Deborah Rosenblum confirmed this to NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby.
Anonymity shielded Hewitt from accountability for the violation.
The Promotion
After Hewitt left Brookings in April 2019, Brookings promoted Rose to Co-Director of the Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology. During his NNSA tenure, they invited him back for presentations and discussed his potential return.
That would be an unusual response to serious harassment concerns.
Politico didn’t report the promotion or the invitations.
The 137 Words Rose Got
Politico gave Rose’s denial two paragraphs—137 words in a 1,100-word article.
His lawyer stated Rose “denies he ever acted in a way that intentionally sought to make colleagues feel uncomfortable” and hadn’t been “notified of specific allegations against him or been afforded due process.”
Politico followed with: “A DOE spokesperson said the department doesn’t comment on personnel matters.”
The Standard Politico Didn’t Meet
Politico’s own source-handling policy states that anonymity is “generally reserved for sources who might face danger or retribution” and that “reasons for granting anonymity must be explained.”
The Rose story granted anonymity to eight sources. It never explained why. It never disclosed that at least one source had a contract terminated by Rose, or that another spoke without authorization.
It reported as fact a complaint that was never verified. It gave the accused 137 words. It provided no context—not the staffing shortage that explained the detail denial, not the FBI background check, not the Brookings promotion, not the two-year relationship.
What This Story Cost
Politico’s article didn’t fire Rose—the 17-day investigation did that. But the article followed him.
Since April 2024, he has applied to more than 20 positions in his field. All rejected or unanswered. He describes himself as “unemployable in his chosen profession.”
Rose is suing the federal government and Hewitt. As of January 2026, the case continues—with DOJ weighing immunity for Hewitt under the Westfall Act.
Messages Hewitt Deleted
Here is a sampling of the LinkedIn messages Kate Hewitt sent to Frank Rose after she left Brookings—where she now claims he sexually harassed her. She deleted these messages after the Politico story published. Rose preserved the messages, and he included them in his court filings.
Note: BlueJeans was a cloud-based video conferencing platform, similar in purpose to FaceTime, but aimed at business and enterprise use.
