A political operator who led an office created by President Donald Trump to expose wrongdoing at the Department of Veterans Affairs used his position to quash whistleblowers and retaliate against foes, according to an inspector general report released Thursday. The accusations involve Peter O’Rourke, who Trump appointed in 2017 to lead the new Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection, and his successor, Kirk Nicholas. The inspector general audit said that under O’Rourke and Nicholas, the whistleblower’s office ended investigations into allies of senior officials, failed to consistently report to Congress and refused to honor whistleblowers’ demands for anonymity.
