(InvestigateWest) — An anti-trafficking nonprofit has sued an Idaho state agency, claiming that the state pulled the organization’s funding in retaliation for whistleblowing on alleged fraud and exploitation at another nonprofit.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of Idaho last week by the Idaho Anti-Trafficking Coalition, comes in the wake of a series of InvestigateWest articles in July. Those articles described complaints from human trafficking victims who stayed at safe houses operated by a separate nonprofit called Community Outreach Behavioral Services, or COBS.

The Idaho Anti-Trafficking Coalition was not the focus of the investigation. But the Idaho Council on Domestic Violence and Victim Assistance, a governor-appointed agency, blamed the coalition and its director, Jennifer Zielinski, for the news coverage of COBS, believing that Zielinski was behind the stories. The state agency distributes grant funding to both organizations.

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Federal agents in July launched an investigation into Medicaid fraud allegations involving COBS. State officials, however, remained focused on their suspicions, based on Zielinski’s previous complaints about COBS, that she had played a role in bringing those allegations to light, emails show.

The state council decided to keep funding COBS and to defund the Anti-Trafficking Coalition.

Calling the conduct of state officials “wanton...

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