House committee finds ‘corruption’ kept Persian news chief on job at Voice of America

Fox News-_June 12th2024

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, is raising alarms about a U.S. government agency responsible for broadcasting media in foreign countries.

The U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) is an independent federal office that oversees entities like Voice of America (VOA), which alone supports 48 different languages and has 354 million viewers across the globe, according to its website.

It has also been the subject of a yearslong investigation by Foreign Affairs Committee Republicans, who have alleged systematic mismanagement throughout the agency and accused it of trying to impede their probe.

In particular, the investigation has focused on Setareh Sieg, a VOA journalist who was suspended and expected to be fired under the Trump administration in early January 2021, only to be restored “with no loss of pay or seniority” the day after President Biden was sworn in, according to documents obtained by the committee. Sieg’s attorney and USAGM have both pushed back on the committee’s findings.

“Sieg’s case is symptomatic of a larger issue. As an agency which routinely hires foreign or foreign-educated individuals, it is troubling that USAGM does not have more robust processes in place to vet employees and detect misrepresented credentials. Sieg’s case calls into question the competence and credibility of USAGM’s entire H.R. apparatus, and the implications of this failure must be addressed,” McCaul told Fox News Digital.

Their probe has largely focused on accusations that Sieg falsified her higher education credentials rather than getting a Ph.D. in political history from a French university. Republicans obtained communications between the University of Paris and the French Embassy in the U.S. that state Sieg got “an establishment degree, not a state doctorate” in October 2021.

In February 2022, a French Embassy official told the committee, “[t]his is as official as can be and is perfectly clear: Mrs[.] [Sieg] DOES NOT hold a PhD…,” according to a timeline provided to Fox News Digital.

The committee report also detailed whistleblower accounts that say Sieg gave variable treatment to at least one employee and hired that employee’s brother for a senior position.

It also pointed to an earlier report by former VOA Deputy Director Elizabeth Robbins that preceded Sieg’s suspension that accused her of having “mishandled $950,000 of government funds by awarding a sole source contract” to a VOA-favored media company.

Around the same time as she was flagged for suspension, Sieg joined a group of VOA journalists who called for Robbins and her director to resign over accusations they violated the outlet’s journalistic code over coverage of then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, according to the report. Sieg’s lawyer denies she was part of the letter.