#whistleblower
6 entries with this tag
White House Secretly Pressured the Board Meant to Protect Civil Servants — Sherk Told MSPB Head to Follow "the Company Line," Board Then Broke with Decades of Precedent, and 50,000 Workers Lost Protections
A New York Times investigation by Michael Schmidt reveals that the Trump White House secretly pressured the Merit Systems Protection Board — the independent agency created after Nixonian abuses to protect federal employees from political firings — into adopting the administration's theory that the president can fire any civil servant at will. White House aide James Sherk, author of the Schedule F memo and a man who has said "every federal employee should serve at the pleasure of the president," met with acting MSPB head Henry Kerner while Kerner was being considered for a permanent position. Sherk told Kerner he was expected to follow the Office of Legal Counsel's opinions on unitary executive theory — described by experts as "little different from calling a federal judge and telling him how to rule." The MSPB then broke with decades of precedent and ruled that it could weigh in on constitutional questions in a way that effectively endorsed the president's power to fire employees without cause. This followed Trump firing Democratic MSPB member Cathy Harris in February 2025 — converting the bipartisan board into one controlled by his appointees — and the Supreme Court blocking her reinstatement via shadow docket. On March 9, 2026, the Schedule Policy/Career rule took effect, stripping civil service protections from up to 50,000 federal workers, making them at-will employees who cannot appeal firings to the MSPB, cannot access statutory whistleblower protections, and cannot challenge their reclassification. An initial executive order reclassified about 8,000 positions. When DOJ prosecutor Maureen Comey (daughter of James Comey) was fired via an Article II letter, a federal judge ruled she could bypass the compromised MSPB and sue directly in federal court — finding the constitutional basis for her firing placed her case "outside the universe" Congress intended the MSPB to resolve. The D.C. Circuit dissent warned: "Under my colleagues' reasoning, it appears that no independent agencies may lawfully exist in this country."
Trump Handed His Acting AG a Stack of News Articles with "Treason" Written in Sharpie — The DOJ Then Tried to Drag Post and Journal Reporters Before a Grand Jury, and Backed Down
The Washington Post reported on June 23, 2026, that Trump's Justice Department issued grand jury subpoenas this spring to compel reporters from The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal to testify under oath in a leak investigation — then withdrew them earlier this month after the two newsrooms challenged them in a secret legal fight in the Eastern District of Virginia. The targets were Post national security reporter Ellen Nakashima and three unnamed Wall Street Journal reporters. CNN reported that Trump personally pushed acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to issue the subpoenas, handing him a stack of printed articles with the word "Treason" written across them in Sharpie. The leak hunt was driven by Trump's anger over carefully sourced stories warning of the risks of attacking Iran — stories that turned out to be prescient. Compelling a journalist to reveal sources before a grand jury is extraordinarily rare; the National Press Club called it "one of the most aggressive actions against a free and independent press in recent memory." It followed a deliberate dismantling of press protections: in April, AG Pam Bondi rescinded the Biden-era policy shielding reporters' records, and in January the FBI searched the home of Post reporter Hannah Natanson and seized her devices. No reporter testified — but the DOJ offered no explanation for the withdrawal, leaving open whether the subpoenas will simply be reissued.
DOJ Whistleblower Reveals Prosecutors Were Ordered to Rush a "Legally Deficient" SPLC Indictment — Zero Convictions Across the Entire Retribution Agenda
A DOJ whistleblower revealed that senior leadership ordered prosecutors to fast-track a "legally deficient" indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center despite their objections. This is the latest in Trump's retribution campaign — Comey, Letitia James, Bolton, the SPLC, law firms, former intel chiefs, sitting senators — and not a single target has been convicted.
Kennedy Center Whistleblower Exposes Grenell Takeover: $2M Seats Near Trump, Donated Art Removed, Fake Fundraising
Josef Palermo, the Kennedy Center's first visual arts curator, blew the whistle on what happened after Trump installed Ric Grenell — an ex-ambassador with zero arts expertise — as president. $2 million box seats to sit near Trump at Les Misérables. Donated art ordered removed. A donor lounge renamed after a CEO pardoned by Trump. Fundraising numbers allegedly inflated to $130 million. The cast boycotted.
DOGE Breached Treasury, SSA, and NLRB Data Systems
DOGE operatives gained access to Treasury payment systems, Social Security records of 300 million Americans, and labor board case data. A whistleblower reported login attempts from a Russian IP using DOGE credentials.
Ben Carson's $31,000 Dining Set — GAO Confirmed Illegal
HUD Secretary Ben Carson's office spent $31,561 on a custom mahogany dining set — exceeding the $5,000 legal limit by 6x. Internal emails showed the Carsons personally picked the furniture. The GAO confirmed it broke federal law.