A top official at the Department of Veterans Affairs denied a request from the agencys chief diversity and inclusion officer to issue a strong condemnation of white supremacy in response to the deadly Charlottesville riot in August 2017, as first reported by The Washington Post .

An email exchange between John Ullyot, named the VAs top communications official by President Donald Trump in March 2017, and workplace race relations expert Georgia Coffey shows conflicting opinions about how the agency should address the racially charged violence.

Coffey told Ullyot that the VAs top officials needed to release a statement against the repugnant display of hate and bigotry by white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the Ku Klux Klan demonstrated at the Aug. 17, 2017, white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

But Ullyot rejected her request, according to emails provided to the Post by watchdog group American Oversight, which obtained them via the Freedom of Information Act. The Veterans Affairs Department also provided HuffPost with a copy of the email exchange.