Biden DEI office covering up sexual misconduct at VA, says oversight boss

A probe by the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) has found its diversity and inclusion (DEI) office is so racked by sexual harassment allegations and other malfeasance that it requires a “reset.”

The chairman of the Veteran Affairs Committee has charged the Biden administration with a cover-up of the investigation’s findings and said that without his personal intervention, the report that exposed the DEI misconduct might never have been written. 

The Daily Wire said that a 125-page investigative report from the VA concluded Archie Davis, the chief of staff for the Office of Resolution Management, Diversity & Inclusion (ORMDI), has been moved to a different position, pending disciplinary action, after an investigation into his behavior. 

The report found that Davis “engaged in misconduct of a sexual nature with a subordinate employee, including while he was in her direct chain of command,” “sexted’ with a different subordinate employee,” covered up allegations against colleagues, and a slew of other infractions. 

But Davis wasn’t the only VA employee found complicit in the “hostile, toxic work environment.” 

Among the internal report’s findings are that employees spent their time filing complaints against each other instead of serving veterans, said the Daily Wire.  

Whistleblowers also described an atmosphere where taxpayer funded junkets were allegedly arranged for the express purpose of having sex with each other and where turf battles were waged over who was allowed to sexually harass the same woman at work, the Daily Wire said of the report. 

The VA report concluded that the behavior found in the investigation was so egregious and widespread “the global leadership deficiencies and failures documented herein indicate the need for a reset” for the ORMDI and the VA, Military.com reported. 

Whistleblowers also made “troubling allegations about ORMDI and its leadership” to Congress, according to the House Veteran Affairs Committee, which is investigating the matter. 

Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Bost, R-Illinois, sent a letter to the VA demanding answers to various inquiries, especially about why two high-ranking VA employees responsible for preventing such hostile and sexual conduct were allowed to retire rather than face discipline.  

Deputy Assistant Secretary Harvey Johnson, the leader of ORMDI, was allowed to retire when the scandal broke, reported the Daily Wire.  

Gina Grosso, the VA’s assistant secretary for human resources and operations, was also allowed to retire, according to Bost, who charged the VA with obstructing the House investigation. 

“Additionally, the recent retirements of those most responsible for the alleged failures, Mr. Johnson and Ms. Grosso, raises further questions about whether the Department is deliberately obstructing the Committee’s investigation and shielding these individuals from scrutiny and accountability for their roles, actions, and complacency in the allegations of improper relationships and sexual harassment at VA,” Bost wrote to Biden’s appointed VA secretary, Denis R. McDonough.   

In testimony to the committee, McDonough said he didn’t remember seeing an email by one whistleblower, an email he later said he sent to the VA’s acting general counsel and to Equal Employment Opportunity contacts at the U.S. Postal Service to investigate.  

“It strains reasonableness that he remembered to send the email to this one entity outside of his organization but failed to remember the contents of the email which included many of the graphic text messages members of this Committee have seen,” said Bost.  

The congressman has vowed to continue to investigate the allegations, saying he feels the Biden administration is covering-up bad behavior at the the DEI office. 

“The findings of the report are damning, disturbing and frankly despicable. The report confirms much of what the whistleblowers shared with us…. This administration can ignore these whistleblowers, partially ignore our subpoenas, send people here to testify who just got on the job less than four weeks ago, and try to hide and protect those who know what happened. But we will find the truth,” Bost said.