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.
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 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