Marvel billionaire Ike Perlmutter used his 'shadow' sway over Trump's Veterans Affairs department to promote Captain America and Spider-Man at the NYSE
, who requested the GAO's review after ProPublica's coverage, said the report confirms that Trump empowered his friends to secretly steer the second-largest government agency without any accountability or oversight.
"Three unqualified, unaccountable cronies used their personal relationship with the president and membership at his country club as leverage to exert personal influence over health care, technology, personnel and other key decisions at the Department of Veterans Affairs," Warren, D-Mass., said in a statement. "The VA must make decisions based only on the best interests of veterans — not on the whims of private individuals with special access to the president." In a statement, Perlmutter, Moskowitz, and Sherman said they provided assistance to the president and VA officials who asked for it. "We volunteered to assist the VA solely because we wanted to help America's veterans get the best possible care," they said.The VA told the GAO it had no comments on the report. In a statement to ProPublica, VA press secretary Christina Noel said, "This report vindicates the department and completely undermines the sensational way many media outlets covered this story." In more than 1,000 email exchanges, as well as interviews with current and former officials, the GAO found that the trio interacted with the VA about a large number of issues: hiring of senior executives, a $10 billion contract to , suicide prevention and mental health efforts, a conference on registries for medical devices, and a government partnership with Apple to develop a mobile app. The trio also discussed "veterans' ability to seek health care outside of VA facilities," the GAO said. That issue — which Trump calls "choice" and critics call a march toward privatization — was a campaign promise and The GAO did not make any conclusion about the propriety of the trio's involvement in the VA. A federal judge has rejected a by a liberal activist group that the trio's involvement violated a Watergate-era sunshine law regulating how agencies can seek outside input. The group, VoteVets, has appealed. The House Veterans Affairs Committee has its own investigation into Perlmutter, Moskowitz and Sherman. In particular, House investigators have in a possible connection to a risky antidepressant that Trump has personally promoted for preventing veteran suicides. A spokesman for the trio has said they weren't involved in the VA's consideration of the drug.Read the
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