Former Iowa Department of Human Services Director Jerry Foxhoven filed a lawsuit against Gov. Kim Reynolds last week, alleging that she terminated him after he refused to pay one of her aides with federal Medicaid money, according to the Des Moines Register June 11.
Mr. Foxhoven served as the state's DHS director for two years before he was fired in June 2019.
Ms. Reynolds said the termination was due in part to a scandal regarding patient deaths at a state-run facility for people with disabilities, the article said.
Mr. Foxhoven alleged that Ms. Reynolds requested he continue to pay one of her aides, Paige Thorson, with Medicaid funds even after she no longer served as an adviser in the department.
The suit said the governor "terminated Foxhoven in order to prevent him from disclosing information he reasonably and in good faith believed constituted a violation of the law, mismanagement, a gross abuse of funds or abuse of authority," according to the article.
A spokesperson for Ms. Reynolds told the publication she had no comment on the lawsuit.