Jonathan Strong
The Daily Caller
5/3/2011
A top technology official at the Obama White House stayed mute Tuesday on the accounts from two colleagues, reported by The Daily Caller last June, that he asked for sweetheart deals from technology vendors on account of his position as a public official.
Brook Colangelo, the chief information officer for the Executive Office of the President, declined to answer questions about the matter following his first congressional testimony since TheDC’s story ran.
Asked in several different ways about the issue, Colangelo offered nothing but a scowl. A colleague walking with Colangelo said “we can’t talk right now.”
Two White House aides said Colangelo asked for the sweetheart deals.
“I heard the CIO talking to various technology vendors, saying … like, ‘You should give this to us for free because we’re the White House.’ And he actually said that to people,” one source said. A second source said Colangelo continued the practice even after having been confronted about its appropriateness.
Following the story, a third source said then-White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel took Colangelo aside to personally underscore the seriousness of the charge.
But a White House spokeswoman at the time deflected the question, saying it wasn’t the Office of Technology’s policy going forward to ask for “special treatment or deals from vendors.”
The issue is important for two reasons.
First, the Obama presidency is under scrutiny for its close ties to several technology companies, including Google and Facebook…
The article continues at The Daily Caller.
Related: Obama White House cavalier toward technology policies aimed at preventing abuses of Presidential Records Act and White House watchdogs call for investigation into Obama tech officials
