Top State Dept. Officials Enabled Misconduct by Pompeo, Whistle-Blower Said

WASHINGTON — A State Department employee who reported witnessing misconduct by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as well as hearing “numerous firsthand accounts” of such behavior was blocked from further addressing the issue by top department officials who were protecting Mr. Pompeo, according to a newly public copy of the employee’s whistle-blower complaint.

The heavily redacted version of the complaint indicates that top officials enabled misconduct by Mr. Pompeo even after the whistle-blower voiced the concerns internally — an alleged circle of complicity that was not previously known. After encountering resistance from the department’s executive and legal offices, the whistle-blower filed the complaint with the agency’s Office of the Inspector General, which apparently prompted an investigation into misuse of taxpayer resources by Mr. Pompeo and his wife, Susan.

Details of the inquiry into the Pompeos, coming amid a cloud of accusations that critics say shows a pattern of abuse of taxpayer money, have emerged gradually since May, when congressional aides told journalists about it. The inquiry was one of at least two investigations that the inspector general, Steve A. Linick, was conducting into Mr. Pompeo’s actions at the department when President Trump abruptly fired Mr. Linick in May, at the urging of Mr. Pompeo. Mr. Linick, known to be cautious and nonpartisan, had served as inspector general since 2013 and ran an office of hundreds that investigated fraud and waste at the State Department.

Three congressional committees are investigating Mr. Pompeo’s role in the firing of Mr. Linick. Critics say Mr. Pompeo, a Trump loyalist, appears to have prodded the president to fire Mr. Linick out of retribution and to avoid accountability. Mr. Pompeo has admitted he knew about at least one of Mr. Linick’s investigations — a nearly completed inquiry into whether Mr. Pompeo acted illegally last year in declaring an “emergency” to bypass Congress to push through $8.1 billion of arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.