Lawyers: Whistleblower backed by federal investigators
WASHINGTON — Federal investigators have found “reasonable grounds” that a government whistleblower was punished for speaking out against widespread use of an unproven drug that President Donald Trump touted as a remedy for COVID-19, his lawyers said Friday.
Rick Bright headed the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, a unit of the Department of Health and Human Services that focuses on countermeasures to infectious diseases and bioterrorism. He had received a job performance review of outstanding before he was summarily transferred last month, with his agency email cut off without warning.
Investigators with the Office of Special Counsel “made a threshold determination that HHS violated the Whistleblower Protection Act by removing Dr. Bright from his position because he made protected disclosures in the best interest of the American public,” lawyers Debra Katz and Lisa Banks said in a statement. The OSC is an agency that investigates allegations of egregious personnel practices in government.
The lawyers said investigators are requesting that Mr. Bright be temporarily reinstated for 45 days until they can complete their probe. OSC spokesman Zachary Kurz said his agency “cannot comment on or confirm the status of open investigations.”
HHS spokeswoman Caitlin Oakley said in a statement that the department “strongly disagrees with the allegations and characterizations in the complaint” and that the whole issue is a “personnel matter that is currently under review.”
Mr. Trump shrugged off the preliminary ruling about Mr. Bright’s complaint.
“I don’t know who he is, but to me, he’s a disgruntled employee,” the president said. “If people are that unhappy, they shouldn’t work. If you’re unhappy with a company, you shouldn’t work there. Go out and get something else. But to me, he’s a disgruntled guy. And I hadn’t heard great things about him either.”
The public will soon get a chance to size up Mr. Bright — he’s been invited to testify before a House committee next week.
Mr. Bright is a flu and infectious-disease expert with 10 years at the agency, which is known as BARDA. His particular focus was on vaccine development. He was reassigned to the National Institutes of Health to work on developing coronavirus testing.
In a formal complaint that his lawyers released this week, Mr. Bright described how tension built up within HHS as COVID-19 arrived in the U.S. and quickly defied Mr. Trump’s assurances that it would be contained.
Mr. Bright said his efforts to escalate preparedness “encountered resistance from HHS leadership, including Secretary [Alex] Azar, who appeared intent on downplaying this catastrophic event.”