![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635899373581314304-veterans-affairs-weigjpg.jpg\")
Veterans Affairs Department St. Paul Regional Office Director Kimberly Graves listens during a Nov. 2, 2015, hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Photo Credit: Molly Riley\/AP<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n In a separate ruling last week, Judge Michele Szary Schroeder said penalizing Graves was inconsistent with the VA’s failure to discipline the higher-ranking officials, particularly Danny Pummill, a top VBA official in Washington who was aware of the actions by both Graves and Rubens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “If no one in her chain (of command) said, ‘Wait, this will not look right’ when they approved her reassignment, how can a penalty be imposed against Ms. Graves for not saying that?” Schroeder wrote in a 41-page opinion on behalf of the Merit Systems Protection Board, a quasi-judicial agency that reviews personnel actions in the executive branch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, called Schroeder’s ruling “a twist of tragic comedy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n The VA’s attempt to discipline Graves “was undone by its refusal to discipline other employees involved in this scandal,” Miller said. “By now there should be no doubt whatsoever that our federal civil service system is in need of drastic reform.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The VA declined to comment on Rubens and Graves, but said in a statement that where evidence warrants disciplinary action, the agency will take action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “In all accountability actions our decisions must be based on the evidence, not on hearsay,” said Deputy VA Secretary Sloan Gibson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n Before taking their current jobs, Rubens was a deputy undersecretary at the VA’s Washington headquarters, while Graves was director of VBA’s 14-state North Atlantic Region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to their job assignments, Graves and Rubens have been under investigation for obtaining more than $400,000 combined in questionable moving expenses under a VA relocation program that has since been suspended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., a member of the House veterans panel, called the ruling in favor of Graves “ridiculous” and said lawmakers “cannot let up in pushing for fundamental change that puts service to veterans above all else.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WASHINGTON \u2014 Federal judges have overturned decisions by the Department of Veterans Affairs to demote two senior officials accused of manipulating the agency’s hiring system for their own gain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":101978,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":19,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3026],"class_list":["post-66602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-veterans"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"DO435HTMFNA5DCKTGCI46LEUJM","arc_canonical_url":"\/veterans\/2016\/02\/01\/judge-overturns-demotion-of-va-official-accused-in-job-scam\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n