Got this in a email from and org called... Judaical Watch... seems they lied to their boss... this kinda stuff makes it difficult for the boss I should think... can't trust his staff? One of the high-ranking Veteran Administration (VA) officials VA Secretary’s Chief of Staff Embroiled in Another Cover-Up Scandal One of the high-ranking Veteran Administration (VA) officials who misled the agency’s secretary about the prosecution of an elderly Army vet made false claims and altered an official record in a separate case. Her name is Vivieca Wright and she is the chief of staff to VA Secretary David J. Shulkin. Last week Judicial Watch obtained records showing that Wright and others in Shulkin’s inner circle lied to him about a federal case in which an Army veteran was criminally prosecuted for displaying the American Flag at a southern California VA facility. Judicial Watch helped represent the 75-year-old vet, Robert Rosebrock, who faced up to six months in jail for the ghastly offense of affixing Old Glory at a site honoring those who served their country. He was also charged with taking unauthorized photographs of both the Flag and VA police. Wright helped spread falsehoods to her boss about the Rosebrock prosecution after he ordered her to check the accuracy of a national news report about the federal case. Shulkin was opposed to pressing charges against Rosebrock and wanted to issue a press release announcing it. More than a month before Rosebrock’s trial, the VA Secretary’s staff downplayed the seriousness of the charges by erroneously stating in official agency emails that the vet made the choice to go to court rather than pay a fine and that he faced no jail time. In fact, Wright forwarded an email to her boss from the director of the West L.A. VA, Ann Brown, falsely stating: “Forgot to add—he is facing a $25 fine with NO jail time.” Days after Judicial Watch published this, the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report stating that Shulkin’s chief of staff lied and altered official agency emails in another case. The VA watchdog was tipped off by a whistleblower outraged over waste involving an overseas trip that misspent taxpayer dollars and misused department resources. During the European jaunt, a high-level VA employee was delegated to “personal travel concierge,” OIG investigators found, and the agency paid thousands of dollars for Shulkin’s wife, a dermatologist named Merle Bari with a private practice in Pennsylvania, to join him on the trip to Copenhagen and London last July. The ten-day trek included 11 people and cost the VA north of $122,000, according to the OIG probe, which found “serious derelictions concerning the trip…” The VA delegation visited Kensington Palace and Westminster Abbey and strolled through the gardens of Buckingham Palace. Details are included in more than a dozen trip books printed at a cost of $100 each, the report reveals. The VA secretary and his entourage were officially attending the Ministerial Summit on Veterans’ Affairs in London, a questionable powwow for senior officials from the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand to “discuss topical issues related to veterans.” After accepting the invitation, Shulkin ordered his staff to book a side trip to Copenhagen, Denmark. Prior to the summer trip, Wright contacted the VA ethics office to find out if her boss’s wife would qualify as an official U.S. government traveler so taxpayers could pick up her expenses. Unless she was on official business or Shulkin was receiving an award, the wife didn’t qualify and would have to pay her own way, Wright was told. The chief of staff did what any corrupt government employee would do—lie and falsify a document. She made up a bogus award that Shulkin would supposedly receive from the U.S. ambassador to Denmark and told the ethics office that the wife’s travel had been “approved by the White House.” Shulkin never received any awards or recognitions, the OIG report confirms. The “VA’s chief of staff made false representations to a VA ethics official and altered an official record, resulting in VA improperly paying for Dr. Bari’s air travel,” the report states. Of interesting note is that less than two weeks before the European trip, Shulkin issued a stern memo to all VA staff announcing restrictions on nonessential travel. The memo, titled Essential Employee Travel, said agency managers had to approve all employee travel by determining whether it is essential in order to decrease “employee travel and generate savings” within the VA. Evidently, the new measures don’t apply to him or his wife. Investigators say they found no evidence that Shulkin was aware of his chief of staff’s “false representations or alteration of official records.” Because Wright’s actions may have violated criminal statutes, the OIG referred the matter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for criminal prosecution, but the agency decided to let it slide. This is typical of the dysfunctional manner in which government operates. ahh here is the link... VA Secretary’s Chief of Staff Embroiled in Another Cover-Up Scandal - Judicial Watch
Ha, and people blast the VA for all the other gross misdeeds, add another one to a seriously corrupt system, made worse because of its suposed mission! Never been a fan of the VA, you would have to drag me kicking and screaming before I would ever set foot in one of my own free will!
What that all tells me is that it's the functionaries that are crooked, not necessarily the putative leaders. Those are hard to get rid of, more's the pity.
"The VA secretary and his entourage were officially attending the Ministerial Summit on Veterans’ Affairs in London..." We use to have a word for this sort of trip: Boondoggle. I would really like to hear how they justify this trip...
JUdicial Watch is a public overwatch organization whose primary tool is teams of lawyers following leads like an investigative reporter should using the FOIA against corrupt officials
Are we surprised no, not one bit. Once they let even a little corruption in the door it grew ever wider.
Like any gov agency of function, people become crooks eventually! Its the same story every single time, now bob gets a nice fat gov job with all the perks and bennies, but it' not enough, and with all the hoops and red tape, becomes mired inside the system! Add in all the free time and access to virtually unlimited funds, they scam the system knowing full well that there is nothing to stop them! I watched a former Marine (nothing against Marines) apply for disability because he got him self effed up playing around while deployed over seas in a very non combat role. This assholes went to over 100 doctors before finally convincing 1 to grant him disability through the V.A. and he even works at one of the V.A. centers full time with all the benefits and retirement package! All these years later and this former Marine has become quite the scam artist, with disabled parking ( even though he has zero disability what so ever) HE even has diabled Marines plates on all his cars, rides a dual sport bike most days, and even though he has been reported a number if times, he maintains his cushy job with full bennies and retirement, with no punishment, and at a serious cost to the tax payers! Dude prolly makes 80K a year and then some, and does nothing appoaching that sort of salary! Its people like that that ruin the system even more, and Vets like me who could use the system for legitimate reasons, avoid it like a plague!
