Top State Dept. Official Resigns After Caught Lying On Resume

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Donald Trump has said that he lets the media do his vetting. Maybe, he was not joking. After all, so many people have flown out through the rapidly spinning White House revolving door, that it is difficult to tell. Except in this case.

A high-ranking State Department staffer was caught inflating her resume, and not just a little bit. The former deputy assistant secretary in the State Department’s Bureau of Conflict and Stability Operations Mina Change had been charged with padding her resume.

She scrolled a fake Time magazine cover showing her face, at the beginning of a video she used to promote herself. Naturally, she denied that, but it was possible that she and Donald Trump both had that in common. Trump displayed his Time covers in his country club’s golfing shops.

Chang argued that her misleading academic statements were not misleading. In her resignation letter effective immediately, she wrote, according to The Politico magazine:

‘Resigning is the only acceptable moral and ethical option for me at this time.’Screen-Shot-2019-11-18-at-4.40.25-PM Top State Dept. Official Resigns After Caught Lying On Resume Corruption Crime Domestic Policy Donald Trump Featured Foreign Policy Investigation National Security Politics Top Stories

Screen-Shot-2019-11-18-at-4.40.42-PM Top State Dept. Official Resigns After Caught Lying On Resume Corruption Crime Domestic Policy Donald Trump Featured Foreign Policy Investigation National Security Politics Top Stories

Her letter condemned the State Department’s culture. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has come under the impeachment gun. He did not obey a Congressional subpoena to appear before the House Intelligence Committee.

She wrote that professionalism “has all but disappeared:”

‘In already difficult times, the Department of State is experiencing what I and many believe is the worst and most profound moral crisis confronting career professionals and political appointees in the Department’s history. Department morale is at its lowest, the professionalism and collegiality — once a hallmark of the U.S. diplomatic service — has all but disappeared.’

Chang also took the State Department to task for not defending her:

‘A character assassination based solely on innuendo was launched against me attacking my credentials and character. My superiors at the Department refused to defend me, stand up for the truth or allow me to answer the false charges against me.’

A State Department spokesperson had not immediately responded to Politico. Chang’s spokesperson said that she had no comment beyond Chang’s resignation letter and a “rebuttal document” the former employee wrote about an NBC story.

Last week, the news erupted that Chang had misled those who wrote her official State Department biography indicated she was an “alumna” of Harvard Business School. Instead, she just went through a seven-week course.

In that rebuttal, Chang said she never claimed to have a degree from Harvard. The elite school’s spokesperson said that they let people attend various executive education programs and claim “alumni status.” This, even when they had not earned a degree.

The State Department employee said one of her friends commissioned artist Pierre-Yves Daygot to create “a piece with her on a Time magazine cover.” Chang said that she did not know her friend had done so. However, she had no qualms about using the cover in her resume video attachment.

Her rebuttal read:

‘[A]n enthusiastic fan online went one step further and used an app to make a fake magazine cover with Ms. Chang’s actual image superimposed on the cover which was subsequently circulated online.’

Screen-Shot-2019-11-18-at-4.42.33-PM Top State Dept. Official Resigns After Caught Lying On Resume Corruption Crime Domestic Policy Donald Trump Featured Foreign Policy Investigation National Security Politics Top Stories

In addition, she said that Chang had not given the public access TV interview for Houston Community College permission to use the Time cover. How did they get it, then?

Chang was hired for the State Department last spring. It was only as her nomination for an even more important job came before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that things began to fall apart. At the U.S. Agency for International Development, she would have managed a one-billion plus budget. The committee had requested more documents and information about her background.

Chang claimed that after the legislators had a question, she had the State Department review her application once again. She added:

‘[They] found that she in no way misled officials during the investigation.’

Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.

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