The veteran, Andrew Goldstein, works closely with Takano; she is a member of the committee staff as well as a Navy Reserve lieutenant commander. Instead of working with me to address an underlying problem at the DC VAMC from the start, Secretary Wilkie and the senior-most officials at VA went out of their way to raise suspicions and cast speculation and doubt about [the veteran] and the legitimacy of the whole incident, Takano said Thursday in reaction to the report. When the most senior leadership of VA are derelict in their duty, refuse to take immediate action to correct glaring deficiencies, and are themselves complicit in attempts to discredit and cast doubt on the facts, they betray the public trust and as a result disqualify themselves from all future public service, he added.