Corruption Watch: Bush Aide Resigns
The Associated Press reports that “an aide to President Bush has resigned because of an alleged misuse of grant money from U.S. Agency for International Development and his former employer, a Cuban democracy organization.” “Felipe Sixto was promoted on March 1 as a special assistant to the president for intergovernmental affair and stepped forward on March 20 to reveal his alleged wrongdoing and to resign” White House spokesman Scott Stanzel told reporters this last Friday.
He went on to say that the “matter has been turned over to the Justice Department for investigation.” President Bush was, Stanzel said, “briefed on the case and felt that the approriate action was being taken.”
Sixto joined the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs in July 2007 and was assigned to deal with state legislators, Native American groups and Hispanic officials on issues such as Cuba, Puerto Rico, health, labor, transportation, the environment and energy, Stanzel said.
Before that Sixto worked for the Center for a Free Cuba, which describes itself as an independent, nonpartisan institution dedicated to promoting human rights and a transition to democracy and the rule of law in Cuba. Stanzel said: “Mr. Sixto allegedly had a conflict of interest with the use of U.S. AID funds by his former employer.”
He didn’t know how much money was involved nor the particulars of the accusations.
It’s obviously the right decision: when someone’s involved in a case like this, fire him. There’s not much more you can do after that. Should they have known? Could they have known? We’ll know once the “particulars of the allegations” are shared with the public. As of yet, it seems safe to assume that Mr. Sixto simply betrayed the trust Bush et al. had in him.
