Sunday, May 25, 2014

Blumenthal: Time to bring in DOJ



Blumenthal: Time to bring in DOJ
By Keith Laing - 05/25/14 11:54 AM EDT
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said Sunday that the Department of Justice should investigate alleged mistreatment of military veterans that has engulfed the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The VA has been accused of allowing a backlog of cases to build up for years in some cases and attempting to cover up the problems by falsifying records.

Blumenthal said Sunday during an appearance on CBS’s “Face The Nation” that the DOJ should be brought in to investigate the complaints because they involve potentially criminal acts. 

“I believe that the Department of Justice has to be involved,” Blumenthal said. “I urged [VA] Secretary [Eric] Shinseki privately and in fact publicly to request and involve the Department of Justice.”

Blumenthal said the VA is not equipped to handle the investigation by itself.

“We’re talking now about…credible and specific evidence of criminal wrongdoing across the country in more than 30 places,” he said. “The inspector general of the Veterans Administration has only 165 investigators. 

“Plainly more resources are needed,” Blumenthal continued. “Only the Department of Justice and the FBI has the resources, the expertise and the authority to do a prompt and effective criminal investigation of the secret waiting list, potential destruction of documents, falsification of records. In effect, cooking the books and covering up that may have occurred.”

Blumenthal added that it was important not to presume officials at the VA were guilty.

He added that allowing the Justice Department to conduct the investigation would help the veterans’ agency restore its reputation.

“These are allegations, but there’s evidence to support them,” Blumenthal said. “We’re not rushing to judgment, but the department of justice can convene a grand jury if necessary.  The IG cannot. And [the Justice Department] reflects and presents an outside independent authority that can offer accountability and the perception of accountability. It would restore trust and confidence on the part of veterans.”

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), who was appearing on the show with Blumenthal, agreed that the problems at the VA were troubling. 

“We’ve got a…basic failure of the institution,” Thune said. “It hasn’t been associated with funding because we know that funding has been increased by 60 percent over the past five years to the VA."

Thune said the VA needed “a top-to-bottom review by the inspector general, system wide, that points out and gives us an idea about how to proceed.

“I think one of the things is we’ve got to have more accountability, more transparency about not only waiting lists, but outcomes at the VA,” the South Dakota lawmaker said. “We also have to come up with a better model of delivering care to our veterans so that they don’t have these waits.  This is a real tragedy, these are people with whom we have sacred trust, and that’s been betrayed. We need to make sure that it’s fixed.” 

Thune said the announcement Saturday that the VA would allow patients to go to non-VA facilities more often to help ease the backlog was a “welcome change.” 

But he said the Obama administration has otherwise been too slow to respond to the VA scandal. 

“I think the president just waited way too long to get into this,” Thune said. “That was the issue that many of us were raising. You had reports of up to 40 people who died on waiting lists. You had these reports of secret lists and falsifying reports and all those sorts of things and it took there weeks for the president to act.” 

Richard Blumenthal
Richard Blumenthal is a U.S. Senate senator, and was the U.S. attorney for Connecticut at the U.S. Department of Justice.

Note: Robert Raben was the assistant attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice, and a director at the American Constitution Society.
Walter E. Dellinger III was the acting solicitor general for the U.S. Department of Justice, and is a board of adviser’s member for the American Constitution Society.
Christine A. Varney was the assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice, and is a director at the American Constitution Society.
Janet Reno was the attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice, and is a board of adviser’s member for the American Constitution Society.
Eric H. Holder Jr. is the attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice for the Barack Obama administration, and was a board member for the American Constitution Society.
Open Society Foundations was a funder for the American Constitution Society, and the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank).
George Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations.
Chuck Hagel was the chairman for the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank), the deputy administrator for the U.S. Veterans Administration, and is the secretary at the U.S. Department of Defense for the Barack Obama administration.
Togo D. West Jr. is a director at the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank), was the secretary for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and the general counsel for the U.S. Department of Defense.
Eric K. Shinseki was a director at the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank), and is the secretary at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for the Barack Obama administration.
William H. Webster is an honorary director at the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank), and was a director at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Joseph W. Ralston is a director at the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank), and was a military analyst for the CBS News.
Bob Schieffer is the chief Washington correspondent for the CBS News, the anchor & moderator for Face the Nation, and a member of the Burning Tree Club.
Linda Douglass was a correspondent for the CBS News, and a communications director, Office of Health Reform Barack Obama administration.
Edward R. Murrow was a correspondent for the CBS News, and a member of the Burning Tree Club.
John A. Boehner is a member of the Burning Tree Club, and the House leader for the Republican establishment.
John W. Warner is a member of the Burning Tree Club, and an honorary director at the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank).
W. DeVier Pierson is a director at the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank), and a member of the Burning Tree Club.
Stanley Ebner is a member of the Burning Tree Club, and a director at the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank).
Jack Valenti was a member of the Burning Tree Club, and a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Aspen Institute (think tank), and the Committee for Economic Development.
George Soros was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
James S. Crown is a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Lester Crown was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), and is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
William M. Daley is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, a contributor for the CBS News, and was the chief of staff for the Barack Obama administration.
Newton N. Minow is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP, and was a director at CBS.
R. Eden Martin is the president of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and counsel at Sidley Austin LLP.
Michelle Obama was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.
Barack Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin LLP, and Obamacare is his signature policy initiative.
CGI Group Inc. was the Obamacare contractor that developed Healthcare.gov web site.
Donna S. Morea was the EVP for the CGI Group Inc., and a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development.









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