Rear Adm. Brian Monahan, the attending physician to Supreme Court justices and congressional members, has resigned amid a Pentagon probe into allegations of misconduct, a senior congressional source told The Washington Sun.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune also confirmed the development to The Sun, saying, “My understanding is he’s resigned.”
Neither Dr. Monahan nor the Navy has publicly announced his resignation, and he is still identified as the attending physician for Congress and the Supreme Court on the Navy’s website.
The Washington Sun has contacted the Pentagon for comment.
Trending
Monahan’s office was the target of an ongoing Defense Department probe.
In a September memorandum, the Pentagon’s Office of Inspector General alerted the Office of the Attending Physician that it would be assessing how effectively Defense Department personnel assigned to the office performed their responsibilities, including providing medical care to beneficiaries.
Several sailors working at the OAP were recently reassigned, according to the Navy Times, which spoke to several employees for a story published this week.
They alleged that under Monahan, sailors were assigned tasks “no one else wants to do,” including clipping lawmakers’ toenails.
Civilian superiors also were accused of pushing military members to stay in their roles and work 70- to 80-hour weeks, the Navy Times reported.
At least four people who have worked in the office told the publication that mistreatment of sailors has been common over the past decade, and that they feared losing monthly bonuses if they challenged management.
Monahan is just the latest in a series of under-the-radar departures from the Navy’s top ranks — including the firings of a leader of a destroyer deployed to the Middle East and several senior officers assigned to a nuclear-powered submarine, a purge that came shortly after an underwater collision damaged the vessel.
The quiet outsters are a departure from the usual Navy policy of publicizing changes to the military branch’s top ranks, which has angered Democrats as they prepare to take control of both chambers of Congress.
Reps. Joe Courtney of Connecticut and Adam Smith of Washington took issue with the Navy’s lack of notice in a letter to military leaders.
“As a result of the Navy’s failure to communicate, what should have been a standard exercise in information sharing has instead raised questions about the Navy’s commitment to transparency and its commitment to a productive working relationship with Congress,” they wrote.
The firings set up a contentious confirmation hearing for acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao, whom President Donald Trump nominated in September to take over the job on a permanent basis.
Author
Contributors
