FLYING ON FEDERAL DIME

Trump’s Veterans Affairs Chief Misled Ethics Officials on Travel Expenses

Sec. David Shulkin’s chief of staff lied to get the agency to pay airfare for the secretary’s wife.

Veterans Affairs Sec. David J. Shulkin’s chief of staff doctored an email and lied in order to have the federal agency pay for Shulkin and his wife’s 10-day trip to Europe last summer, according to the VA’s inspector general. Vivieca Wright Simpson, the number-three VA official, manipulated language in an email to an aide to make it seem like Shulkin was receiving an award from the Danish government and used that as an excuse for the agency to pay for Shulkin’s wife’s travel—totaling more than $4,300 in flight costs. The VA released a statement to The Washington Post earlier this year, saying the ethics council “reviewed and approved” the Europe trip and the Wimbledon attendance—a statement the IG later found to be misleading. Shulkin is now the fifth Trump cabinet member to have been caught up in a travel-related ethics scandal.