David Shulkin - Wikipedia
European trip controversy[edit]
In September 2017,
The Washington Post reported that Shulkin spent nearly half his time on a recent international trip to Europe—which was paid for by taxpayers—sightseeing and shopping with his wife, Merle Bari.
[27]Shulkin later told the
Post that he did "nothing inappropriate" on the trip, that the trip was taken primarily to attend a
Five Eyes conference, and that personal visits to "various historic and other sites in London and in Denmark" were done "on nights, on weekends, the day before the conference started" and were "paid for by me."
[28]
In February 2018, a report by Michael J. Missal, the Inspector General of Veterans Affairs, found that Shulkin and his staff had lied to both the agency's ethics officials and the public about the nature of his July 2017 trip to Europe. The report found that Shulkin's chief of staff, Vivieca Wright Simpson, altered emails and made false statements to make it look like Shulkin was receiving a Danish government award to justify his wife accompanying him on the taxpayer-funded trip. The VA paid over $4,300 for her airfare. The Inspector General found that the overall expense for the trip was at least $122,334. The report also found that Shulkin had inappropriately accepted tickets to
Wimbledon worth thousands of dollars and had directed an aide to act as a "personal travel concierge" for the trip. The Inspector General referred his concerns about the potential criminality of the actions undertaken by Shulkin's chief of staff to the
Justice Department, which declined to prosecute.
[29]
He partied at the expense of the taxpayers......................You are the weakest link........GOODBYE.
WOW! The First question at the Senate hearing should be.
