VA AIDE ACCUSED OF PLOT

Deputy denies trying to use lawmakers to undermine boss

WASHINGTON – One of the top deputies to VA Secretary David Shulkin actively lobbied Capitol Hill to demand his boss’s resignation, two sources say.

John Ullyot, the VA’s assistant secretary for public affairs, asked a senior aide at the House Committee on Veterans Affairs to persuade lawmakers to call the White House and say they wanted Shulkin out, said both individuals, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the situation’s sensitive nature.

Ullyot is the secretary’s highest-ranking aide, tasked with publicly defending him and the agency.

Ullyot denies he tried to oust Shulkin. The two sources said he made the request in a call initiated by VA press secretary Curt Cashour on Feb. 15, the day after the release of an inspector general’s report that concluded Shulkin had misused taxpayer dollars during a European trip last year.

Shulkin had appeared at a congressional hearing that morning and raised the possibility that an aide’s email account had been hacked. The inspector general had concluded the aide had doctored an email to get improper approval for Shulkin’s wife to join him on the trip at taxpayers’ expense.

On the call, Cashour criticized Shulkin for raising concerns about hacking and told the senior aide that it would reflect poorly on the agency. He then put his supervisor, Ullyot, on the line, who asked the aide for help to oust Shulkin.

Cashour and Ullyot, who declined to be interviewed, provided a joint statement acknowledging they made the call but denying they sought help to push Shulkin out. “That simply never happened, and the allegation is ridiculous,” the statement said.

The two people with knowledge of the effort said Ullyot expressed confidence on the call that President Trump would fire Shulkin by the following Tuesday. But he told the aide it would be helpful if lawmakers on the panel called for his resignation and contacted the White House to create more pressure.

Cashour and Ullyot said the purpose of the call was to inform the aide that “we had no evidence of email hacking.”

“Our message was simple: be careful on advancing the hacking allegations publicly, as they were thus far baseless,” Cashour and Ullyot said.

Cashour became VA press secretary

A power struggle between a group of political appointees and Shulkin and his longtime aides has divided the top ranks of the VA for months.

in June. Ullyot worked on Trump’s campaign and his transition team before becoming assistant VA secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs in April.

A power struggle between a group of political appointees and Shulkin and his longtime aides at the agency has divided the top ranks of the VA for months. But it spilled into public view following the release of the investigation report, when Shulkin told reporters the political appointees were undermining him.

Shulkin could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

David Shulkin