Politico: West Wing Playbook

This article excerpt features Government Accountability Project’s whistleblower client, Rachel Wallace, and was originally published here.

“The White House’s science office has decided not to give RACHEL WALLACE her job back as general counsel at the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Wallace, currently the deputy counsel and the chief operating officer at OSTP after being demoted last fall, is being represented by the Government Accountability Project as a whistleblower after she went public with her concerns about former science adviser ERIC LANDER.

After Wallace filed a complaint last fall, an internal White House investigation found ‘credible evidence’ that Lander had bullied her and violated workplace standards with other employees. That investigation and POLITICO’s disclosure of it prompted Lander’s resignation in February. The White House investigation also found that Wallace’s demotion wasn’t ‘procedurally improper.’

The current general counsel, RACHEL COTTON, is leaving her post and OSTP decided to hire another political appointee as a replacement rather than restoring Wallace, a civil servant since the Clinton administration, to her original position.

An OSTP spokesperson told us: ‘Appointing your own general counsel is the norm in federal government.’

Sent that response from OSTP, Wallace’s attorney DAVID SEIDE said in a statement: ‘The White House frames this as about policy differences. It isn’t. Rachel Wallace was OSTP’s General Counsel and chief ethics officer. She repeatedly blew the whistle on Eric Lander’s unethical activities. Before he resigned, Dr. Lander responded by ‘replacing’ Rachel, saying ‘this is not a demotion.’ It was, and it was retaliation because it hurt Rachel’s professional career. The federal whistleblower laws make what Dr. Lander did illegal and require the reinstatement of retaliation victims. It’s sad to see this White House’s refusal to honor well-known legal obligations.'”