Exclusive: VA conducted internal investigations into employees who attended vigil for Alex Pretti

Source: CNN Politics

PUBLISHED May 5, 2026, 6:00 AM ET


For days after the killing of Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis, fellow workers for the Department of Veterans Affairs held vigils at health centers nationwide, partly in protest and partly to pay their respects. Becky Halioua, a recreational therapist and union leader at the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia, said she felt “it was important to acknowledge him, as a brother of our organization.”. “It’s scary for me to think about a fellow VA employee being murdered by the same government that they work for,” Halioua told local TV station WRDW, a CNN affiliate, at the time. “That’s terrifying for me.”

Then Halioua learned she was under investigation by that same government. Her supervisor informed her that an internal probe had been launched into whether she violated agency rules regarding employee interviews with the news media, a probe that could result in disciplinary action. Halioua is not alone, several sources familiar with the matter told CNN. At least three other VA employees have been investigated for their interactions with the press, including at least one other related to Alex Pretti, according to one of the sources.

As part of her investigation, Halioua says investigators emailed her photos of herself at the vigil from news coverage, which also included a brief interaction with a local newspaper. Someone had drawn a line around her image in some photographs, labeled with her name. “It really gave me an uneasy feeling,” she says. Seeing her face circled in a photograph of a crowd seemed “very stalker-like.” VA press secretary Quinn Slaven said he could not comment on Halioua’s case, citing privacy concerns. “Privacy laws prevent VA from publicly discussing specific details about its employees without their written consent,” Slaven said in a written statement.

He did not address more general questions about the VA’s media relations policy and how often it conducts these types of investigations. Federal agencies typically have rules that limit employees from talking about their government role or department in media interviews, while allowing them to speak in a personal capacity. In some cases, Trump administration officials have taken a hard line against federal employees talking with reporters and what they characterize as leaks.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/05/politics/va-investigation-vigil-alex-pretti