Veterans Affairs employee fired for refusing to support firing a whistleblower

A Department of Veterans Affairs employee assigned to investigate whether a government whistleblower should be fired is instead being dismissed after she refused to change her finding that the target of the investigation did nothing wrong.

Rosayma Lopez, a privacy and disclosure officer who handles Freedom of Information Act requests for the Veterans Department in Puerto Rico, was asked to determine whether her colleague Joseph Colon broke privacy rules by divulging information embarrassing to the office’s boss.