Trump campaign staffer accused of sexual harassment tapped for VA post

The White House has chosen a former Trump campaign staffer accused of sexual harassment as acting chief information officer at the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA), Politico reported Wednesday.

Camilo Sandoval, the former director of data operations for President Trump’s 2016 campaign, was already working in the VA and has been mentioned in several media reports for repeatedly clashing with former VA Secretary David Shulkin.

Shulkin was ousted from the department last month, one of a string of high-profile Trump administration departures this year.

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A former Trump campaign employee, Jessica Denson, sued the campaign for $25 million last year, alleging that Sandoval harassed, slandered and sexually discriminated against her while working on the campaign, according to Politico.

Denson states in the lawsuit that Sandoval threatened to fire her and started rumors aimed at undermining her credibility, including claims that she was behind a leak of Trump’s tax data.

Sandoval previously worked at the Treasury Department before moving to the VA, but was reportedly required to work in a basement office after battling career staffers.

“Since May of 2017 he served as senior advisor to VA’s undersecretary for health, a job in which he oversaw a range of improvement efforts, including electronic health record modernization and telehealth,” a spokesperson for the VA said in a statement to The Hill.

“Before joining VA, he worked in the private sector, focusing on financial technology and digital mobile payments. He is an Air Force Veteran with six years of active duty service as a signals intelligence analyst,” the statement continued. “A candidate for VA’s permanent assistant secretary for information and technology has been identified and is being vetted by the White House.”  

As acting chief information officer, Sandoval will likely play a large role in the VA’s decadelong transformation to a Cerner Corp. electronic health record, according to Politico.

Updated on April 20 at 3:56 p.m.

An earlier version of this story inaccurately said Denson filed a lawsuit against Sandoval. It has been corrected to show that Denson’s lawsuit was against the Trump campaign.