Publicly released: July 18, 2019
We received and investigated allegations of reprisal and misconduct against Ms. Dana W. White, Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs (ATSD(PA)), and her deputy, Mr. Charles Summers, Jr., Principal Deputy Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs.
This report provides the results of our investigation regarding the allegations related to misuse of subordinates for personal services and acceptances of gifts from subordinates. We completed a separate report that specifically addresses the allegations of reprisal. With regard to Mr. Summers, the allegation was that Ms. White’s subordinates told Mr. Summers of Ms. White’s alleged misconduct and that he failed to take appropriate action.
We substantiated the allegation that Ms. White misused her subordinates’ time for personal services. The Joint Ethics Regulation (JER), Section 2635.705b, states that an employee shall not encourage, direct, coerce, or request a subordinate to use official time to perform activities other than those required in the performance of official duties or authorized in accordance with law or regulation. We did not substantiate the allegation that Mr. Summers failed to take appropriate action regarding Ms. White’s alleged misuse of subordinates.