Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
VA chief mishandled report of sex assault, watchdog says
WASHINGTON — Confronted with a sexual assault allegation at a veterans hospital, Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie repeatedly sought to discredit the congressional aide who made the complaint and his staff worked to spread negative information about her while ignoring known problems of harassment at the facility, according to an investigative report released Thursday.
The 47-page report by the VA’s internal watchdog paints a portrait of a department led by senior officials who were indifferent, if not hostile, to the issues at the department’s flagship medical center in the nation’s capital.
It found that Wilkie acted unprofessionally, if not unethically, in the case of Navy veteran Andrea Goldstein, a policy adviser to Democratic Rep. Mark Takano of California, chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee.
Associated Press policy is not to name victims or possible victims of sexual assault. Goldstein agreed to be identified publicly.
Wilkie and other senior officials declined to fully cooperate with the investigation.
For that reason, VA Inspector General Michael Missal said he could not conclude whether Wilkie had acted illegally, allegedly by personally digging into the woman’s past and working with a Republican congressman to dismiss her as a repeat complainer.
Wilkie said the allegations are false.
“After nearly a year of investigation, interviews with 65 people and analysis of nearly 1.5 million documents, VA’s inspector general cannot substantiate that I sought to investigate or asked others to investigate the veteran,” Wilkie
said.
Takano called on Wilkie to resign.
Goldstein said the report confirmed that Wilkie’s response “was not to take ownership and ensure accountability, but to investigate me and attempt to impugn my character.”
She said she hopes Wilkie’s successor “will center and prioritize eradicating sexual violence at VA, and actively work to gain women veterans’ trust.”
The findings are a black eye for a department that has seen improved performance and veterans’ satisfaction with VA care under the Trump administration. But the department has received criticism for an unwelcoming culture for female veterans, the military’s fastest growing subgroup.
“The response of Secretary Wilkie and senior VA officials to the veteran’s complaint of sexual assault was troubling,” Missal said in a statement. “Scrutinizing the veteran’s background is contrary to VA’s stated goal to serve veterans with respect.”
According to the report, Wilkie showed undue defensiveness after learning of the complaint in late 2019. He referred the matter
as requested to the inspector general but spent parts of leadership meetings dismissing her concerns as politically motivated, the report said.
It said former VA Deputy Secretary Jim Byrne testified that Wilkie indicated to staff he had gathered negative information from the Pentagon and Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, who knew Goldstein when she was in the Navy, and that she had made frivolous complaints previously.
The inspector general could not conclusively confirm that Wilkie improperly investigated her, in part because of his refusal to fully cooperate.
But the report said they had “substantial sworn testimony” from staff of Wilkie repeatedly belittling her.
Crenshaw denies discussing the case with Wilkie.
At another point, Curt Cashour, a VA deputy assistant secretary working in the press shop, urged a news organization to dig into Goldstein’s background, according to the report. Cashour denied that he was directed to do this, but told investigators the tip was based on communications he had with Wilkie about Goldstein.