White House staff are divided after current and former staff members alleged that a former Advance associate director verbally abused employees and asked interns to do household chores.
Current staff, speaking to Fox News Digital on condition of anonymity, said those reports were highly misleading.
Ian Mellul is the former associate director of the presidential advance, responsible for setting the stage for the president’s political events. He “resigned on March 1 after an investigation lasting several months,” according to a Political report.
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The White House staff is divided after current and former staffers alleged that a former Advance associate director verbally abused employees and asked interns to perform household chores. (Getty Images)
“Mellul — who ran for Biden’s 2020 campaign and joined the White House early in the presidency — threatened staffers with ‘ruining your life’ when mistakes were made and routinely called younger staffers a “pieces of shit” and “worthless,” according to two of the people who witnessed his actions,” Politico reported.
Mellul also allegedly ordered interns to perform personal tasks for him, “like picking up his dry cleaning.”
Mellul, however, denied ever making such demands on the trainees. “That’s just not true,” he said Fox News Digital in a report.
“I love all my colleagues; they are committed, competent and brilliant public servants,” he said. “To anyone who has felt otherwise at any time, I am sorry and I want them to know that. It has been the honor of my life to work with this team, and I am very proud of everything we We had three extraordinary years together at the White House, I wanted to open a new chapter.”
The controversy surrounding Mellul comes after the White House attorney’s office opened an investigation into the advance team amid rumors of harassment. White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates told Fox News Digital that he would not “comment on personnel matters one way or the other.”
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The controversy surrounding Mellul comes after the White House attorney’s office opened an investigation into the advance team amid rumors of harassment. (Photographer: Jacquelyn Martin/AP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Mellul is not the only one to have resigned from the advanced team in recent months.
“Brie Moore, the former press advancement director, also resigned in recent weeks following press complaints to the White House about her behavior,” Politico reported.
Some current and former staff members criticized Ryan Montoya for refusing to do enough to stop verbal abuse on the team.
“Ryan Montoya is the head of the department and I think everyone would take the blame for this whole issue,” a former White House official told Politico. “People went up to Ryan several times and Ryan would laugh about it and ignore him.”
Other staffers disputed this claim about Montoya, with one telling Fox News Digital that they had “never felt disrespected by Ryan or heard his voice raised.”
This same staffer targeted the framing of Politico’s story.
“I find the descriptions of (Ryan) that were published in the Politico article very surprising and completely contradictory to what I experienced every day for over three years,” the employee said via text message. “I’ve spent a lot of time with Ryan and the other members of the team and this Ryan story that Politico reported on in their article is completely devoid of reality and completely crazy.”
Another current staffer told Fox News Digital that there was no doubt about Mellul and Montoya’s “mentorship,” “support” and “advice.”
Speaking specifically about Montoya, the staffer said it was an honor to work for the Biden administration.
“I couldn’t be more proud to work for Ryan and be a part of this administration under his leadership,” the staffer said.
“President Biden is deeply proud of his forward team, his leadership,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates told Fox News Digital. ((AP Photo/Andrew Harnik))
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“President Biden is deeply proud of his advanced team, his leadership and Ryan Montoya – a dedicated and dedicated group whose expertise, camaraderie and professionalism have been essential to his 242 domestic and 31 international trips, executing flawlessly events in unprecedented environments. ranging from multiple active war zones outside of U.S. control to a once-in-a-century pandemic,” Bates told Fox News Digital. “He is grateful to everyone who has served and is part of an unparalleled team that represents diversity country and who fought every day to help him deliver his message to the American people and the world.”
A Politico spokesperson defended the outlet’s reporting in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“We stand by our reporting based on interviews with 18 current and former White House staff and individuals who worked directly with the White House preliminary team,” the statement said.
