The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has launched an investigation into the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) handling of whistleblower complaints following a string of complaints about DHS’s Office of Inspector General.

According to an email obtained by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), the GAO is reviewing the handling of whistleblower complaints from President Trump’s first term through the first year of his current one.

GAO confirmed the probe, which comes after DHS said it had asked Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, an appointee from Trump’s first term, to turn over a list of all his active investigations.

GAO, Congress’s nonpartisan watchdog, reached out Monday asking for interviews with whistleblowers.

“The purpose of these interviews is to hear your firsthand perspectives about the whistleblower retaliation complaint and investigation process and how, if at all, whistleblower protections were communicated to you. We are also interested in hearing about your experiences reporting the underlying allegation of wrongdoing,” GAO wrote in the email.

While it said it will not “reassess cases,” GAO wants to hear more about whistleblowers’ “experiences with these processes to give us contextual background and help inform our review.”

The review was spurred by a request from two Democratic lawmakers.

“Whistleblower retaliation is never acceptable, but in the past year Donald Trump has taken how he is retaliating against whistleblowers to a new level in...

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