WASHINGTON (AP) — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was warned that he may not have the full story as he stuck by his July decision to oust Shirley Sherrod, the department worker who was wrongly accused of racism.
More than 800 pages of e-mails obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act show his decision was made hastily after learning that an edited clip of her remarks had made its way into the media.
Agriculture Department officials asked Sherrod to leave her job as Georgia's director of rural development July 20 after comments she made in March were misconstrued as racist.
She later received numerous apologies from the Obama administration, including from the president himself, and Vilsack asked her to return.
