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By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
Department of Safety Commissioner Robert Quinn pushed Gun Line employees to rush through background checks on gun buyers and started a campaign of retaliation against the staffer who objected, according to a new filing in the whistleblower complaint brought by Tiffany Foss.
Foss, who now works for a different state agency, is seeking protection from Quinn fearing he could still harm her career after she complained about the rushed background checks, and an illegal background check Quinn allegedly ordered.
Foss filed for whistleblower protection with the Department of Labor in December, and the DOS filed an objection this month. Foss’ attorney, Andrea Amodeo-Vickery, filed a new response late last week, adding details about Foss’s complaint and laying out the harassment she suffered once she complained about Quinn’s order to rush checks.
According to the new filing, Foss and her Gun Line staff were under constant pressure from Gov. Chris Sununu’s office and Executive Councilor David Wheeler, R-District 5, due to the amount of time the background checks were taking. Toward the end of 2020, Quinn told Foss and her staff to “pare down” the work they were doing on the background checks.
“(Quinn) told her that, going forward, he wanted her staff to conduct less thorough background checks than their normal practice,” Amodeo-Vickery writes in the new filing.
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