The following article by Lisa Rein was posted on the Washington Post website February 14, 2018:
Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) on Feb. 15 asked Veterans Affairs Secretary David J. Shulkin about his taxpayer-funded travel to Europe in 2017. (House Veterans’ Affairs Committee)
Veterans Affairs Secretary David J. Shulkin’s chief of staff doctored an email and made false statements to create a pretext for taxpayers to cover expenses for the secretary’s wife on a 10-day trip to Europe last summer, the agency’s inspector general has found.
Vivieca Wright Simpson, VA’s third-most-senior official, altered language in an email from an aide coordinating the trip to make it appear that Shulkin was receiving an award from the Danish government, then used the award to justify paying for his wife’s travel, Inspector General Michael J. Missal said in a reportreleased Wednesday. VA paid more than $4,300 for her airfare. Continue reading “Veterans Affairs chief Shulkin, staff misled ethics officials about European trip, report finds”