WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The FBI has taken steps toward firing Minneapolis agent Jane Turner, who alleged last month that one of her colleagues stole a crystal globe from the World Trade Center ruins, her lawyer said Tuesday.

Attorney Stephen Kohn charged that FBI officials are retaliating because Turner's disclosures caused the bureau embarrassment. He said her disclosures so undermined the FBI's investigation into whether employees of a Minnesota company stole items from disaster sites that the inquiry was transferred to another law enforcement agency.

"Essentially, the FBI is upset that they've lost jurisdiction over a civilian criminal case . . . regarding theft at ground zero," Kohn said.

Paul McCabe, a spokesman for the bureau's Minneapolis office, said that "the FBI does not retaliate against its employees."

Kohn said Turner, a 24-year veteran who has been on probation for much of the last year, was told during a job evaluation Tuesday that her performance is "not acceptable."

"That is the first step to a discharge," he said. "I think it's obvious that if the FBI engaged in the same misconduct that the civilian is accused of, then it's appropriate for the FBI to be disqualified."

McCabe said the allegations of retaliation would be referred to the Justice Department's inspector general, whose office is also investigating other allegations from Turner.

'Troubling questions' 

Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who have pushed unsuccessfully for stronger laws to protect FBI "whistle-blowers," rose to Turner's defense.

Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the timing -- soon after Turner leveled her allegations -- "raises troubling questions about whether this is a retaliatory action."

Grassley said the action "looks like retaliation against a whistle-blower who followed her conscience and exposed wrongdoing, even though it embarrassed the FBI. If there are plans to fire her, the FBI is making a big mistake, and I want the people behind this retaliation held accountable."

Leahy and Grassley wrote FBI Director Robert Mueller on Sept. 25 seeking his assurance that Turner would be protected from retaliation. Grassley noted Tuesday that shortly after taking office last year, Mueller issued a memorandum vowing to protect whistle-blowers from intimidation or reprisals.

Turner first wrote Inspector General Glenn Fine on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks that an elite FBI "evidence response team" from Minneapolis may have stolen a Tiffany crystal globe from the ruins of the World Trade Center. She said she spotted the globe, which she says is worth more than $5,000, sitting on a secretary's desk.

When Turner raised the issue, she had been assigned to investigate allegations of thefts by employees of Kieger Enterprises Inc., a Lino Lakes disaster cleanup company that the bureau is investigating. She said that after learning of the apparent theft by an FBI agent, a federal prosecutor advised her that no indictment could be sought in the case she was investigating "due to possible FBI misconduct," according to her lawyer.

Citing the ongoing investigation of her allegations, FBI officials have declined to discuss the circumstances under which the globe was taken or to explain why an allegedly stolen item would be displayed so prominently in a law enforcement office.

Without naming Kieger, Kohn said Turner was informed last week that she was being removed from her assignment "and that, essentially, she is to blame for the bureau losing the jurisdiction in the case."

Alleges discrimination 

Turner also has alleged that Minneapolis FBI agents improperly accepted tickets to Minnesota Vikings games from a former FBI agent who was retained by Kieger. The former agent, Dag Sohlberg, said he routinely distributes tickets to law-enforcement personnel as the NFL security representative in the Twin Cities.

Turner also is waging a sex discrimination suit against the FBI.

Kris Kolesnik, director of the National Whistleblowers Center, said that Turner's avenue of appeal is with the FBI's Performance Recognition and Awards Unit at FBI headquarters. But he said that the bureau has yet to reform that office, as it promised to do in a 1980s court case, and that "theoretically, any decision made in that office is suspect."

Kolesnik said that based on his experience "there is a clear and present danger for Jane Turner as far as her future is concerned."

-- Greg Gordon is at ggordon@mcclatchydc.com.