In Private Letter, Red Cross Tried to End Government Inquiry

The American Red Cross, which has often boasted of its transparency, attempted to halt a congressional inquiry into its disaster relief work last year, according to a private letter Gail McGovern, CEO of the American Red Cross, wrote to Rep. Bennie Thompson.

In the letter, McGovern asked Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi and the ranking member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, to "end the inquiry" he requested into the charity and how it coordinates with the federal government. The Government Accountability Office was already four months into its investigation when McGovern went to see Thompson and followed up with the letter, which was obtained by NPR and ProPublica.