During the era of tyrannical enforcement of the COVID-19 shot mandate by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), a few hundred medical exemptions were processed, but strangely, nearly 2,000 religious exemptions were not.
Sonny Fleeman, a combat veteran and federal whistleblower, once considered his role at the Department of Veterans Affairs to be “a sacred extension of his service” that helped secure benefits for fellow veterans.
But after discovering that he and other employees were targeted for their faith-based rights, the claims rater is now beginning to question his calling.
Armed with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) data reviewed by The Gateway Pundit and shared publicly (i.e. request 23-02813-F, 23-03774, and 23-03950-F), Fleeman revealed that “during the COVID-19 shot mandate, the VA processed medical exemptions while stalling religious ones.”
According to him, “this tactic was orchestrated by VA leadership and the Office of General Counsel (OGC) to sidestep Title VII and coerce compliance.”
“I’m fighting an agency that’s betraying the freedoms I defended,” Fleeman told The Gateway Pundit.
His own religious exemption request became a year-long ordeal, met with silence, forcing him to file a medical accommodation request just to have his religious exemption request processed.
“I knew it wasn’t right, so I fought it from day one,” he admitted. “It took a whistleblower complaint to the chief of reasonable accommodations, who battled OGC to prove me right.”
The personal toll was “searing,” Fleeman expressed. “Not knowing if my exemption would be granted left me uneasy but watching my leadership knowingly do wrong because it came from above—that moral injury cut deeper than anything.” He witnessed “managers betraying principles in real time, refusing to resist unjust orders.”
Multiple FOIA requests uncovered “a broader betrayal,” Fleeman discovered. He explained that “data shows the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) processed zero of 1,983 religious exemption requests while approving 206 of 845 medical ones.”
He pointed out, “the VA set a hard deadline of November 22, 2021, for employees to get vaccinated under Executive Order 14043, yet not one of the 1,983 religious exemption requests got a look before that clock ran out.”
Meanwhile, he said, “they zipped through 153 medical exemptions in the same stretch, proving they could move fast when it suited them.”
“Thousands were forced to pick between their beliefs and their jobs,” Fleeman offered. “This deliberate disparity violates Title VII’s protections against religious discrimination, making it not just unfair but illegal.”
Yet, nearly four years on, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has faced no formal accountability—no legal judgments, congressional reprimands, or policy reforms—leaving this apparent violation of religious liberty unaddressed and its victims without redress.
“The FOIA data I retrieved proves that discrimination is occurring beyond any doubt, as it clearly shows that while medical exemptions were processed, religious exemptions were not,” he noted. “How deep does this go? The FOIA data screams for accountability.”
“I fought for this country,” Fleeman shared. “Now I’m fighting for our rights. They can’t keep dodging this,” he laments, hoping his efforts will compel Congress to investigate this matter and more.
Fleeman emphasized that the views expressed herein are solely his own and do not reflect the official policies, positions, or endorsements of the Department of Veterans Affairs, the U.S. government, or any organization with which he has been affiliated, past or present.
His statements are based on personal experience and FOIA-acquired evidence, intended to inform and advocate for accountability, not to represent any institutional stance.
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