The Government Accountability Office (GAO) separated an auditor and socialist activist from his work at the agency while officials investigate “serious issues” raised by an undercover video by conservative activists.
Undercover agents from the conservative activist group Project Veritas filmed GAO auditor Natarajan Subramanian talking about his affiliation with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and admitting that he uses federal time to do DSA-related tasks. (RELATED: What Is The Deep State? [VIDEO])
“I break rules every day,” Subramanian says in the video. “At any point, I can get fired for stuff I do with DSA.”
“We are aware of the video and investigating the serious issues it raises, and we have also communicated with the GAO Inspector General,” GOA Office of Public Affairs managing director Chuck Young told The Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement. “The employee has been removed from any ongoing GAO work and cut off from access to GAO equipment.”
“We have a rigorous quality control process with many reviewers that prevents one person from biasing our final reports. But we will also examine his work product as part of our investigation,” Young’s statement said.
Young could not tell TheDCNF whether Subramanian was suspended or still receiving a paycheck because of “privacy issues.”
The DSA responded to the video, calling the organization behind it “wildly unethical,” The Hill reported.
“This campaign, which wrongly targets both these dedicated public servants’ privacy and their freedom to exercise their 1st amendment right, is just the latest in a long line of failed political attacks from a group desperate to remain relevant,” the DSA told The Hill in a statement.
The GAO announced Thursday morning it was investigating Subramanian because of what he said in the video.
GAO released the following statement on the Project Veritas video: We are aware of the video and investigating the serious issues it raises, and we have also communicated with the GAO Inspector General.
— U.S. GAO (@USGAO) September 20, 2018
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