Lawyers: Fed investigators side with punished whistleblower

WASHINGTON — Federal investigators have found “reasonable grounds” that a government whistleblower was punished for speaking out against widespread use of an unproven drug President Donald Trump touted as a remedy for COVID-19, his lawyers said Friday.

Dr. Rick Bright headed the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, a unit of 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 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,” his 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 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.”