A noted Department of Veterans Affairs whistleblower said Friday that a VA employee dressed up as him for Halloween.
“Recently, there was a Halloween party, it was reported to me, where another employee dressed up as me, as a whistleblower,” Brandon Coleman said on “Fox and Friends.”
“He had a ponytail like me, tattoos like me, a beer belly like me,” he said. “So, the corruption runs deep. There is no accountability at all.”
A VA employee, second from left, was confirmed to have dressed like a VA whistleblower, according to a picture obtained from a federal government source.
Coleman is a whistleblower from the VA’s Phoenix office, who has been on several TV shows and has testified before Congress about the VA’s failure to help veterans.
VA workers have come under increasing scrutiny for their failure to care for veterans, and for worrying more about their own jobs and benefits than helping veterans. Aside from the healthcare wait time scandal, employees continue to get big bonus awards, even in VA clinics found to be systematically delaying benefits for veterans.
Veterans and VA whistleblowers have also complained about the general attitude of the VA during the crisis. At a pre-Halloween party at one VA office, VA workers were caught using the facility’s gym for an all-day party, and played a human version of Hungry Hungry Hippos.
House aides say that same office has previously complained about not having enough staff to do the work it needs to do.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner in September, Coleman recounted how he was retaliated against at the VA after he tried to bring to light the agency’s failure to provide adequate help to suicidal vets.
“I was told by one when I was going to come forward that that’s how people get fired,” he told the Examiner.
In February, he got a letter saying he was being put on paid administrative leave. He was later cleared, which to him showed that he was punished for “nothing more than being a whistleblower.”
