Whistleblowers are exposing corruption like never before under Trump
There’s so much wrongdoing in the Trump administration that dozens of whistleblowers are now working with House Democrats to help bring misdeeds to light.
Whistleblowers exist in every administration. But under Trump, the number of whistleblowers has skyrocketed — and many of them are already working with Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.
It didn’t take much time at all for whistleblowers to come forward in the Trump era. That’s probably because so many Trump team members engaged in so much wrongdoing right away. For example, it was a whistleblower that brought attention to the fact that literally minutes after Trump was sworn into office Michael Flynn started texting someone about a plan to work with Russia on building nuclear reactors in the Middle East.
Now that Democrats are in power, the amount of whistleblower tips they’ve received has been accelerating, possibly because employees know that the Democrats will investigate their concerns — something that likely didn’t happen when the GOP held the House. An anonymous Oversight Committee aide told The Atlantic that the committee was getting three to four tips per week before the election, but now they’re seeing an average of five per week, with one week topping out at 15 tips.
The most high-profile whistleblower right now is Tricia Newbold. She’s the White House employee who raised the alarm about people who were receiving security clearances even though they had issues that should have barred them from doing so, including foreign influence and conflicts of interest.
Sadly, Newbold is likely being retaliated against for bringing her concerns to light. Back in January, she received a two-week unpaid suspension after NBC reported that her boss, political appointee Carl Kline, had overruled career security employees and approved a security clearance for Jared Kushner.
It’s terrible that government employees need to put their careers at risk to speak out against Trump, but House Oversight Committee Chair Elijah Cummings has vowed to protect those people brave enough to come forward. Under this administration, bringing misdeeds to light is a vital service to the country.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
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