A terminated employee at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said in a Monday interview that she was being “framed” for allegedly advising a survivor assistance team in Florida to skip homes with campaign signs in support of President-elect Trump.
In an interview on NewsNation’s “Dan Abrams Live,” the former agency employee, Marn’i Washington, denied wrongdoing and said she was simply following orders.
“So firstly, I’m being framed. There’s no violation of the Hatch Act. I was simply following orders,” Washington told Abrams, when asked whether part of the guidance she offered her team was to avoid homes advertising Trump, and if so, why.
“I did not vote for Kamala Harris so there is no political plight on my part. I was simply following orders,” she added.
Washington sought to pin blame on her supervisor.
“I execute orders. I don’t create policy. I do not reinvent the wheel. My record shows that,” Washington later said in the interview.
Washington and FEMA Director Deanna Criswell were named in a lawsuit filed by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody (R) last week, claiming they “agreed” to deny Trump supporters relief after Hurricane Milton.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Fort Pierce, Fla., asks for unspecified damages and a declaration that the two FEMA officials unlawfully conspired to violate Floridians’ civil rights.
“While the facts will continue to come out over the weeks and months, it is already clear that Defendant Washington conspired with senior FEMA officials, as well as those carrying out her orders, to violate the civil rights of Florida citizens,” the complaint read.
House Republicans have also opened a probe into the incident, and Criswell is slated to testify about the incident before a House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee later on Tuesday morning. The committee last week asked Criswell to brief members on the incident and on FEMA’s response to it.
The committee also asked FEMA to provide documents and information about the agency’s effort to reach and aid homes that were skipped because of the incident, along with other communications.
“As the FEMA Administrator, you are responsible for leading the Nation’s efforts to prepare for, protect against, and respond to natural disasters. The Committee is troubled that under your leadership FEMA failed to aid all Americans, regardless of party affiliation,” Republican House lawmakers said last week in a letter shared with The Hill.
Criswell confirmed the termination earlier this month and condemned the incident, saying, ““This is a clear violation of FEMA’s core values and principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation. This was reprehensible.”
Washington said in an interview with journalist Roland S. Martin early last week that the federal agency was scapegoating her and that homes were skipped because of “verbal abuse” by those Trump supporters.
“They all alleged that these actions were made on my own recognizance and that it was from my own political advances. However, if you look at the record, there is what we call a community trend,” Washington said. “And unfortunately, it just so happened that the political hostility that was encountered by my team — and I was on two different teams during this deployment — they just so happened to have the Trump campaign signage.”
