The former chief of staff for D.C.’s Department of Health Care Finance testified Monday that Sulaimon Brown was fired for giving a “romantic” gift to a female intern and for poor job performance.
Talib Karim stepped down from the agency soon after Sulaimon Brown was fired from it after issues regarding his own past were raised in the media. Karim said in written and oral testimony that it was not news reports about Brown’s past that led to Brown’s firing, nor was it pressure from at-large Councilman David Catania, as Brown claimed.
Instead, Karim wrote, “it appears [Brown’s] termination was motivated by his poor performance and conduct unbecoming of a mayoral appointee, such as reports of a harassment from employees including one instance in which he offered a ‘romantic’ gift to an intern with the agency.”
Karim also wrote in his testimony that the mayor’s then-chief of staff Gerri Mason Hall “notified” him that Brown was being appointed to work in the agency as an auditor and “I was asked to identify an exact post for Mr. Brown, and assist with processing his hiring paperwork.”
