Criticism comes after a week of controversy over Carson’s department spending on expensive office furnitureA second senior official in the Department of Housing and Urban Development has publicly criticised the secretary, Ben Carson, accusing him of leading a “witch-hunt” against some career bureaucrats in the department. Marcus Smallwood told Carson in an email on Tuesday that Hud’s civil servants were working in fear after the demotion of his colleague Helen Foster and Carson’s rejection of her claims. In a Facebook post on Monday, Carson further complained without evidence that he had been the victim of “character attacks”. She said she was told by a department lawyer that this was because she was perceived to be a Democrat. Smallwood told Carson that “undue influence was placed on Helen, and myself to process FOIA request of a political nature in a fashion different from the normal process”.

Source: The Guardian March 06, 2018 19:54 UTC