Did Gina Raimondo Hire Providence Journal Reporter To Quash DCYF Scandal Reporting?

Warwick, RI –  After she received months of criticism for her mismanagement of Rhode Island’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) following an investigation by the Providence Journal on reported neglect and worse by the agency’s employees, Gina Raimondo’s administration is now hiring one of the Journal’s lead reporters on the issue, raising even more questions for the embattled governor as she appears to be trying to quash the story ahead of the 2018 gubernatorial election.

Rhode Island Republican Party Chairman Brandon S. Bell commented:

“Raimondo has announced that Jennifer Bogdan will be leaving the Journal to join her team as Deputy Communications Director. For months, Bogdan has been one of the Journal’s lead reporters on its investigation into the agency, having “cultivated sources and obtained documents that will help them peel back the layers of what’s happening to the children in DCYF’s care.” Since her first report in August “Danger in R.I. group homes,” Bogdan has broken stories on the DCYF’s systemic problems involving staffing, budgeting, incompetent leadership, and its lack of transparency, which have raised inconvenient questions for Raimondo and her administration.”

“But now, after Raimondo has taken months of bipartisan criticism for her lack of attention to the DCYF’s problems following Bogdan’s reports, the timing of her decision to hire Bogdan raises serious questions. Did Raimondo decide to hire her in hopes of quashing the DCYF scandal and reducing the Providence Journal’s investigation into her administration’s mismanagement of the DCYF?”

Bell concluded: “Instead of spending more taxpayer money on communications staffers to help her get reelected she should spend our money on fixing DCYF.”