Editorial: The latest scandal at the VA is an astonishing example of corruption at the top of the department

The Department of Veterans Affairs has faced years of scandals related to poor medical care and cover-ups of problems at its hospitals and facilities. But a new scandal chronicled by VA Inspector General Michael Missal is particularly pathetic and should lead to a major house-cleaning.

It involves House Committee on Veterans' Affairs staffer Andrea Goldstein, a Navy reservist who reported last year that she had been groped and verbally abused by a male veteran while in a public area of a VA facility in Washington, D.C. Given there have been many similar complaints from women veterans in the past, what happened next is astonishing. Missal found that VA Secretary Robert Wilkie and five of his aides undertook a campaign to discredit Goldstein as untrustworthy, apparently with the help of Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas.

President-elect Joe Biden has already announced his intention to replace Wilkie with former White House chief of staff Denis McDonough. But if President Donald Trump wants to be productive in his final five weeks, he should fire Wilkie and his aides immediately. Missal's report cites emails and documents showing their attempts to vilify a distinguished veteran and notes that Wilkie impeded his inquiry by refusing to be interviewed. The House should also launch an ethics probe into Crenshaw.

America's 18 million veterans deserve far better.

This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune.

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