The VA said it agreed with the report's recommendations but faulted the inspector general for failing to note the agency had already resolved many of the cited problems. The agency has fired more than 8,600 people since the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act took effect in June 2017.

O'Rourke declined to comment on the report.

O’Rourke, who since August has been executive director of the Florida GOP, was for a time chief of staff to then-VA Secretary David Shulkin. The former secretary, fired by Trump in March 2018, accuses O'Rourke in a recent book of conducting policy behind his back with White House officials and three influential members of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago country club.

After Shulkin's firing, O’Rourke became acting VA secretary for three months and then a senior adviser to Secretary Robert Wilkie, who sacked him last December.

GOP officials described O'Rourke as Trump’s “hand picked” appointment to the senior staff position in the Florida Republican Party. He enjoyed the backing of Ike Perlmutter, the Marvel Entertainment chairman who along with two other Mar-a-Lago members has exercised tremendous influence at Trump’s VA.

The inspector general report said that O’Rourke had directly retaliated against at least two whistleblowers by downgrading their jobs. It said he had intervened in the investigation of a political ally, producing a favorable outcome for that person.

O’Rourke told the investigators that some VA employees had made careers of filing complaints to the whistleblower’s office or the inspector general. That perspective is shared by many former VA officials who describe a culture of backstabbing there.

Trump created the VA whisteblower office early in his term after the department had been rocked by a scandal involving a cover-up of long appointment waiting times for sick veterans. Recently, as Trump became the subject of an impeachment inquiry that stemmed from a whistleblower’s report, he has said he would like to see whistleblowers face more scrutiny and fewer protections.

Matt Dixon contributed to this report.