WASHINGTON — A senior administrator at the Department of Housing and Urban Development accused department officials on Tuesday of conducting a “witch hunt” against whistle-blowers and demanded that Ben Carson, the HUD secretary, acknowledge that his wife had pressured officials to approve an expensive renovation of his office.

In a letter to Mr. Carson, Marcus Smallwood, the director of records and information, also said he was forced to speed up the release of emails that would portray Lynne Patton, a former top aide to Mr. Carson and Trump family friend who was transferred last year to the department’s New York office, in a favorable light.

The letter comes a week after HUD’s former chief administrative officer, Helen G. Foster, said that Mr. Carson’s wife, Candy Carson, had instructed a subordinate to circumvent federal laws prohibiting expenditures of more than $5,000 to replace worn-out furniture in the secretary’s sprawling 10th-floor office suite.

Last week, Mr. Carson ordered the cancellation of a $31,000 contract for a custom-ordered mahogany dining room set — a table, sideboard, hutch, chairs and two $1,050 side chairs after the contract, which violated the $5,000 rule, was reported in the news media.