Bendapudi surely does come off badly in that report - “you cannot trust the FBI, they’re tricky.” Yikes.
Shoemaker certainly could have been fired for deciding she had the authority to disclose the Gaudio extortion attempt to the FBI and local police. I happen to think that UofL would win against the whistleblower claim because of the restraint they showed in not firing her.
That’s almost certainly why Shoemaker agreed to settle for $750K. And UofL would probably have paid that much or more to defend themselves against the charge in court, so being able to settle and not admit to anything was an ideal outcome for UofL.