Emails Show Contempt of Veterans Affairs Officials for "Mar-a-Lago 3"

E-mails released by senior Veterans Affairs staff on Thursday reveal the frustration and contempt they felt at the intrusion of three wealthy members of President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club into the project. create a new digital health platform.

The e-mails of 2017 and 2018, which Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington obtained as a result of an application under the Freedom of Information Act, show the inordinate influence of the members of Mar-a-Lago , Marvel Entertainment president, Ike Perlmutter, attorney Marc Sherman and internist Bruce Moskowitz.

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The emails reveal how executives reacted to what they saw as unnecessary interference in their work. Essentially, they amused Trump's three friends by ignoring their advice, which they saw as uninformed and potentially disruptive to veterans' health care.

In an email, project leader John Windom describes a meeting with the three partners as a "grimace". Another respondent calls them "clearly too deep" to require changes to the department's 2018 EHR. contract with Cerner that the officials deemed unreasonable.

"Mr. Sherman does not understand the culture of VA or the federal government," said Windom in another email with a colleague. "He seems to be a type of" big bang ". The problem is that we must continue to provide uninterrupted and quality care to our veterans during the transformation into the parameters of the law and other regulations / policies. "

But a senior VA official involved in the DSE project, former Trump campaign leader Camilo Sandoval, has kept a list of requests made by the three members of Mar-a-Lago on a poster he has checked the box from time to time, according to a manager. who worked directly with him.

The influence of the three members of Mar-a-Lago was revealed by POLITICO in 2018, with additional details emerging from the FOIA documents requested by ProPublica. The Congress is still studying the group's interactions with the department.

VA Secretary General Robert Wilkie said last year that he had not spoken to any of the three since taking office. On Thursday, the VA did not respond to an email asking if she is still involved in developing the agency's policies.

On Wednesday, two legal defense groups sued Wilkie for allegedly failing to keep emails alleging that his predecessor, David Shulkin, had been sent from a personal account in order to deal with the personalities of Mar-a. -Lago – an activity illegally claimed.

"Despite the reluctance, VA career employees were forced to waste taxpayer time and resources to meet the trio of members of Mar-a-Lago, solely because of their links with Trump," the group's president. CREW ethics said in a press release with the documents.

In an email issued by CREW, a senior VA official forwarded to another staff member questions that, he said, came from a "friend / doctor POTUS".

"We have to deal with the facts with tact and tact," Interim Executive Director Scott Blackburn said in an email.. Ashwini Zenooz, a senior medical staff member of the project, said the requests were "just ridiculous. It does not make sense and there is a fundamental lack of understanding … I'm just puzzled. "

In another email, a staff member refers to Moskowitz as "Dr. W Palm connected to Trump. … His understanding of the system is outdated, but we need to be responsive here. "