The following article by Isaac Arnsdorf was posted on the ProPublica website August 8, 2018:
“This situation reeks of corruption and cronyism,” said the top Democrat on the House veterans committee.
Update, Aug. 10, 2018: Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, formally requested investigations by the VA Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., called on the VA secretary to cut ties with the Mar-a-Lago Crowd and remove their allies in the agency.
Democratic lawmakers said they will investigate how three outsiders have been shaping policy and personnel at the Department of Veterans Affairs. A ProPublica investigationTuesday revealed the vast influence of the trio, who often meet at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.
Tim Walz, the ranking Democrat on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, sent a letter to the agency’s new secretary demanding that the VA hand over all records of contacts between agency officials and the three men, who are sometimes referred to as the “Mar-a-Lago Crowd.”
“This situation reeks of corruption and cronyism,” Walz (D-Minn.) said in a statement. “If these revelations prove true, and VA is being secretly run from the shadows of Mar-a-Lago by individuals with no accountability to taxpayers and who have never served in the United States military or government, then that would amount to an unprecedented, disturbing, and profoundly unacceptable betrayal of our nation’s veterans.”