Pentagon Says Trump Interfered With Investigation Into Rep. Ronny Jackson's Abuse Of Subordinates

The release of the Department of Defense’s investigation into Rep. Ronny Jackson has also revealed that the Trump administration worked to obstruct the inquiry, demanding that its own legal counsel sit in on all interviews with White House staff.

Jackson faces a cavalcade of allegations from his time as White House physician, including substance abuse and making “sexual and denigrating” comments about a female subordinate before drunkenly harassing her, CNN reports.

The report went out of its way to say it "was limited in scope and unproductive" due to the constant oversight of White House legal counsel during interviews. Investigators were unable to talk to anyone in the White House Medical Unit without Trump’s personnel monitoring.

"We determined that the potential chilling effect of their presence would prevent us from receiving accurate testimony,” the report states.

The White House also threatened to invoke executive privilege, halting the two-year investigation for ten months of deliberations before backing off.

Rep. Jackson has denounced the investigation as motivated by politics, outright rejecting the notion he drank alcohol while on duty when asked by CNN.

"Three years ago I was the subject of a political hit job because I stood with President Trump,” Jackson told The Texas Tribune. “Today, a Department of Defense Inspector General report has resurrected those same false allegations from my years with the Obama Administration because I have refused to turn my back on President Trump.”

The report’s interviews tell a different story. Of the 60 coworkers interviewed, only four said they hadn’t seen Jackson abusing subordinates. The report alleges improper behavior involving alcohol on two separate 2016 trips to Manila and Bariloche.

Perhaps most damaging is the accusation of sexual harassment: a witness says Jackson made comments about a third employee’s chest and rear, later drunkenly knocking on her door and saying, “I need you. … I need you to come to my room.” When the employee, confused, got dressed and came to his room with a medical bag, he tried to have her film himself eating a local egg dish.

“The female subordinate told us she looked at Manila Witness One, thinking, ‘I’m done. This is not where I want to be. I don’t know what this man was coming to my room for in the first place, but this is clearly not related to my job,'” the report said.