White House whistleblower who has dwarfism says boss moved files out of her reach as ‘retaliation’

‘It was definitely humiliating ... But it didn’t stop me from doing what was right’

The White House whistleblower who accused Donald Trump’s administration of supplying 25 security clearances against the advice of career officials has accused her boss of discrimination in an apparent act of retaliation.

Tricia Newbold, a veteran security specialist and manager at the White House Personnel Security Office, filed a complaint last year with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against her boss, Carl Kline, an appointee of the president.

She described Mr Kline moving security files to an unreachable new location “not once, not twice, three times” in the NBC News interview released earlier this week.

“It was definitely humiliating,” Ms Newbold said. “But it didn’t stop me from doing what was right.”

Ms Newbold has found herself at the heart of a major battle between the White House and Congress, as the House investigates alleged misconduct on the part of the Trump administration supplying clearances to the likes of Jared Kushner and other top advisers to the president, with backgrounds that troubled investigators who oversee the security application process.

Ms Newbold – who still works at the White House Personnel Security Office – alleged Mr Kline moved the files once she spoke out about the decision to supply clearances to at least 25 applicants whose backgrounds featured “disqualifying issues”. According to security clearance experts, those could range from foreign financial debts, to drug use or criminal misconduct.

“The protection of national security is not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue, it’s an American issue,” Ms Newbold said.

She added: “We as security professionals owe it to make all our recommendations in the best interest of national security.”

Ms Newbold, who has worked within the government for 18 years, was suspended for a total of two weeks for reportedly “defying” Mr Kline, according to a suspension decision notice.

Her suspension arrived within days of reports surrounding Mr Kushner’s unusual security clearance process, which has become the subject of the House Oversight Committee’s probe.

Mr Kline’s lawyers have denied wrongdoing and said he is cooperating with investigators, writing: “The facts will prove that he acted appropriately at all times.” He no longer works at the White House, and has since moved on to the Pentagon.

Mr Kushner also denied all wrongdoing in a recent Fox News interview, saying: “Over the last few years that I’ve been here, I’ve been accused of all different types of things, and all of those things have turned out to be false.”