President Trump Begins Draining the Swamp, as the Department of Veterans Affairs FINALLY FIRES TWO notoriously corrupt employees in Puerto Rico.
Leftist America realizes that President Trump doesn’t mince words. While his predecessor promised to fix the VA where veterans died on waiting list, Trump did the “anti-Obama” and acted.
As we learn from The Daily Caller, President Trump started draining the swamp.
Days into Donald Trump’s administration, two notoriously corrupt employees at the Puerto Rico Department of Veterans Affairs were fired this week, indicating that more may be on the way.
The first is the hospital CEO, DeWayne Hamlin, who offered an employee $305,000 to quit after she helped expose his drug arrest.
“Mr. DeWayne Hamlin was removed from federal service effective January 20, 2017,” the VA said.
Hamlin’s firing was done on Inauguration Day.
Considering Hamlin’s crime, one would have thought Obama would have already had him dismissed. After all, taking care of our veterans should have been among his top priorities, and corrupt employees don’t make good caretakers.
However Obama was too busy signing last minute legislation to pardon drug dealers, and authorizing $220+ million to fund terror groups in Gaza. The man had his priorities.
The article continues,
Under former Secretary of Veterans Affairs Bob McDonald, the agency ignored years of evidence about shoddy work ethic, theft and whistleblower retaliation.
McDonald was hand-picked by Obama, and presided over the worst period of veterans abuse in modern history. It took the Office of Special Counsel to get the VA to take a look at itself, as allegations of abuse of veterans spread. Hamlin was part of that abuse.
Nevertheless, even as he knew of the problems, McDonald tapped Hamlin to serve as a “coach” at the Leaders Shaping Leaders training session the VA held.
Ironically, McDonald said the training is the number-one way to shape the agency’s culture. I’d say.
The article continues,
Because nothing says leadership like a convicted drug abuser!
Paperwork reviewed by The Daily Caller News Foundation shows that bosses openly told Rosayma Lopez that she was being fired for refusing to fabricate a reason to fire another employee, Joseph Colon, after he exposed that Hamlin had been arrested at 3 a.m. in Florida on suspicion of drunk driving while in possession of pills for which he had no prescription.
Forget that diversion of opiates, aka DRUGS from VA facilities is a major issue; just say no. But the bigger issue is what Hamlin did to prevent a government employee from doing her civic duty.
After ethics officials blocked that firing, he attempted to pay her to quit using $305,000 of taxpayer money, which would have been the largest settlement in recent VA history. She refused the money.
Also in September, Leah Bradley, the VA’s general counsel under McDonald, told Congress that Hamlin’s attempts to get rid of Rosayma Lopez were not retaliation, even though the investigation was ongoing, she did not cite any evidence, and ultimately the evidence apparently concluded otherwise.
{{Play along and read in your best Mafioso voice} Retaliation? Forget about it. This was just a simple firing for cause, right?! Bada bing.
The other person fired recently is a woman who took part in an armed robbery.
Now one would think that an armed robber is not somebody the VA would employ. Further, as Obama reviewed his “people to fire” list, her name might have come up? He might have even asked for a complete LIST of hardened criminals in the employment of the Fed; but golf beckoned.
Believe it or not, the VA allowed this woman to keep her job while she was in jail. She then continued to work in the hospital’s security office while wearing an ankle bracelet.
Deny Deny…then pretend you didn’t Deny
After The DCNF broke the story, administrators told Congress it wasn’t true and Elizabeth Rivera had been fired. However they later backtracked, then claimed the VA could not fire employees for off-duty crimes.
So let’s say we believe that. As a leader of our troops, Obama should have changed the rules (for ALL government employees). It’s not too much to ask that criminals be fired, is it? What a can of worms that would create for government criminals, huh!
And now for the most humorous side of the story, as the article explains.
Outside lawyers ridiculed this explanation, and spokesmen at the time would not say why she wasn’t simply fired for missing work because she was in jail.
She was suddenly fired Tuesday for misconduct, including being absent without leave and failing to disclose other arrests on her job application, which her background check apparently did not catch.
The Daily Caller documents the other felons employed by the VA.
In short, the VA and all other governmental agencies will get a rude wake-up call very soon.
