Yet she will not be getting the job after all — making her the latest public servant of integrity to face career consequences in apparent retaliation for Mr. Trump’s impeachment over allegations that he abused his power by withholding military aid from Ukraine to force Kyiv to investigate his political rival, former vice president Joe Biden.

Ms. McCusker played no known role, direct or indirect, in bringing that misconduct to the House of Representatives’ attention. All she did, while serving last year as acting Pentagon comptroller, was to tell the White House, via internal emails, that its holdup of the nearly $400 million Ukraine aid package might violate federal law, possibly causing the appropriations to lapse. She reacted with exasperated incredulity when an Office of Management and Budget official, Michael P. Duffey, tried to blame her for putting the funds at risk. In a September email, one of a series made public by Just Security, a website specializing in foreign affairs and defense policy, Ms. McCusker wrote, “You can’t be serious. I am speechless.”

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Now the White House has confirmed that her nomination for comptroller has been withdrawn. There was no explanation offered. No doubt the White House did not relish a confirmation hearing at which Ms. McCusker would have had to testify about the Ukraine matter; equally plausibly, Mr. Trump is continuing his campaign of post-impeachment payback that has already resulted in the unceremonious ouster of Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman from the National Security Council staff, Gordon Sondland being recalled as ambassador to the European Union and the withdrawal of former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia Jessie K. Liu’s appointment for a top Treasury Department post, reportedly in part because of her hesitancy to indict former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe. Axios has reported that Trump political loyalists inside and outside government are drawing up lists of officials deemed questionably loyal and targeting them for replacement.

Every president is entitled to a senior staff of his or her own choosing. No president is entitled to a subservience that overrides officials’ fundamental duty, which is to the law. That duty is what Ms. McCusker was honorably fulfilling last year. The withdrawal of her nomination sends a disturbing signal about the consequences of doing so in this administration.

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