The report comes as Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin is attempting to overhaul the troubled VA and, in particular, its health care system. | Win McNamee/Getty Images VA audit: Aide expensed Shulkin wife’s European travel under false pretense

Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin’s chief of staff altered an email to create a pretext for taxpayers to pay for Shulkin’s wife to accompany him on a 10-day trip to Europe last summer, the agency’s inspector general reported Wednesday. Amid some calls for his resignation, Shulkin said the email may have been sent by a hacker.

The report by Inspector General Michael Missal also claims that Shulkin improperly accepted a gift of Wimbledon tickets during the trip, and a VA employee’s time was misused planning tourist activities for Shulkin and his entourage.


Chief of staff Vivieca Wright Simpson changed language in an email from an aide coordinating the trip to make it appear that Shulkin was receiving an award from the Danish government, Missal said. Because of the supposed award, the VA paid for Shulkin's wife's airfare, which cost more than $4,300.

Shulkin told POLITICO the IG report was inaccurate — wildly exaggerating the cost of the Wimbledon tickets, for example — and spurred by internal VA opponents of the sweeping changes he is trying to bring to the agency. Shulkin complained that he only had two business days to respond to accusations in the report before it was published.

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"There are people within my organization who are not happy with the progress we’re making and the direction of the organization, who are deliberately undermining me," he said. Shulkin has demanded more accountability from employees at the VA, which says it removed 1,300 staffers last year and suspended 500 others.

"They are really killing me,” he said.

Shulkin said he spoke with President Donald Trump after he got a draft of the report last Thursday. “He was receptive to hearing what this was about. He didn’t indicate any particular direction about it,” Shulkin said. Trump voiced continuing support for him in the job, he said.

The leaders and ranking members of the House and Senate Veterans' Affairs committees said they were "disappointed by the details described in the IG report" and urged Shulkin to address them quickly. "[W]e have been privileged to work closely with Dr. Shulkin on many pieces of legislation to improve the lives of veterans," they said in a news release. "We need to continue the progress we have made and not allow distractions to get in the way."

Wright Simpson denied having sent the email with altered information, and showed Shulkin evidence that her email had been hacked and that someone had been sending emails in her name, he said. Wright Simpson is a “37-year government employee with very high ethical standards as far as my dealings with her. This needs to be looked into.”

The report comes as Shulkin—the only holdover from the Obama administration in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet—is in the midst of a difficult attempt to overhaul the troubled VA and, in particular, its health care system.

The VA is spending billions for veterans to receive care outside its understaffed facilities, and has embarked on a multi-billion-dollar upgrade of its health IT system despite grumbling from internal experts that a planned contract ignores many pitfalls and could result in a fiasco.

Shulkin meanwhile has faced political pressures from within the administration. The Washington Post reported last week that the White House wants to remove Shulkin's deputy secretary, Thomas Bowman, as a "warning shot” to Shulkin because he has met with lawmakers who oppose Trump’s plans for the VA.

Sen. Jerry Moran attacked Shulkin at a hearing last month and complained he was dragging his heels on awarding a $10 billion contract for a new electronic health record system to Cerner, the health IT giant based in Kansas City, Mo. Rep. Mike Coffman, a member of the Veterans Affairs committee, called for Shulkin to resign on Wednesday.

Shulkin said he had nothing to do with the arrangements for the trip and that spouses routinely accompanied previous VA secretaries to the annual London summit that was part of the visit. He was paying the Treasury for the cost of his wife's airfare and for the Wimbledon tickets, he said.

The action of IG staff in the investigation “reeks of an agenda,” Shulkin wrote in a letter accompanying the report, adding they had treated his family and staff with “extreme contempt, bordering on badgering and harassment.”

