Tricia Newbold, a White House security specialist, has been suspended without pay after filing a discrimination suit against her boss, Carl Kline, three months ago, NBC News reported. Newbold is accused of allegedly defying her supervisor, but her lawyer claims that her suspension is a "reprisal for her whistleblowing".
Newbold, who is has a rare form of dwarfism, has accused Kline of discriminating against her height by moving the security files to a different location that was inaccessible to her.
Kline, meanwhile, recently became the subject of a scandal around the security clearance given to Jared Kushner, a senior adviser to US President Donald Trump, who is also Kushner's father-in-law. NBC reported, citing anonymous sources, that Kline had given Kushner the security clearance despite objections from two career White House security specialists, who pointed to concerns raised by the FBI's background check.
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According to an anonymous source, cited by NBC, Kushner had become "one of at least 30 cases in which Kline overruled career security experts and approved a top secret clearance despite unfavourable information". Trump's son-in-law filed two applications for a clearance, which were both rejected, before he finally got it.