GAO agrees to investigate Mar-a-Lago members' influence on VA
A top government watchdog has agreed to investigate the amount of influence three wealthy members of President Donald Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, Fla., exerted over the Department of Veterans Affairs.
In a letter released Monday, the Government Accountability Office accepted a request from Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, to investigate the trio’s influence over national veterans policies. Orice Williams Brown, managing director of congressional relations for the GAO, wrote in the letter that it was “within the scope of its authority.”
But the GAO won’t have the staff available to investigate for another five months, Brown wrote.
ProPublica first reported in August that Marvel Entertainment Chairman Ike Perlmutter, lawyer Marc Sherman and Bruce Moskowitz, a Palm Beach doctor, used their proximity to the president to influence VA operations. Though none of them have served in the U.S. military or government, they steered VA officials on policies affecting millions of Americans, ProPublica reported.
https://www.stripes.com/news/gao-agrees-to-investigate-mar-a-lago-members-influence-on-va-1.558148