VA staffers blasted 'ridiculous' meetings and questions with Trump allies in internal emails
By Zachary Cohen, CNN
Updated 6:09 AM ET, Sun August 25, 2019
Washington (CNN)Career officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs expressed deep frustrations over having to entertain "ridiculous" policy recommendations from a trio of influential Mar-a-Lago club members during President Donald Trump's time in office, according to documents released by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics.
A series of internal emails spanning from November 2017 to June 2018, show that VA officials wrote to senior staffers with concerns about how this group of three, known within the department as "the Mar-a-Lago crowd," was given the authority to influence policy despite having no government experience or expertise in veterans issues.
CNN has previously reported how this trio, which included Marvel Entertainment chairman Ike Perlmutter, Bruce Moskowitz, a Palm Beach doctor, and lawyer Marc Sherman, was very open about the fact that they had been "anointed by the President and had his full support to influence policy at the VA" despite never being appointed or installed as formal advisers, sources told CNN.
A former VA official previously told CNN that it was almost as if the Mar-a-Lago group were given influence over the agency as "spoils" after Trump's election victory, adding that the dynamic was "unprecedented."
Their influence at the agency caused "frustration and confusion ... for career government employees having to work outside the bounds of what we know is right," one former department official told CNN last year. "We tried on the government side to keep things appropriate, but senior VA officials were applying pressure to meet these outside demands."
The emails released by CREW last week illustrate that frustration, showing how VA officials repeatedly chafed at having to meet with, and respond to, these informal advisers.
The documents also show that a VA official complained to one senior staffer that questions coming from one of the individuals were "just ridiculous" and "don't make sense."
In one email, VA staff wrote that an outside adviser was "out of his depth" in understanding the department's electronic health records system.
In another exchange, a senior VA official told staff members that Marc Sherman does not "understand the context of government nor does he understand the [app development] contract," noting that his involvement was causing those engaged in the process to "talk past each other."
Yet, VA officials were still obligated to engage with the Mar-a-Lago crowd, even if it was considered to be a waste of time, because of their ties to Trump, the emails suggest.
"They are coming from POTUS friend/doctor," reads one response to a frustrated official who was seeking guidance on how to address a series of "ridiculous" questions they received from one of the individuals.
"Handle sensitively and with facts," the response said.
In another email, a VA official characterized a meeting with two members of the Mar-a-Lago crowd as "just a grin and bear it session."
"To me the session tomorrow is just a grin and bear it session. I will have my listening hat on for two hours," the official wrote.
The VA did not respond to CNN's request for comment about the comments made in the emails nor the meetings themselves. The White House also did not offer comment.
more:
http://www.cnn.com/2019/08/25/politics/trump-mar-a-lago-crowd-va-emails/index.html
DO SOMETHING!
| 
