A senior adviser to US President Joe Biden has resigned after being accused of harassment, and the White House found “credible evidence” of it after an internal investigation.
Eric Lander was director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and held the same status as cabinet members in the Biden administration. He was mainly concerned with Biden’s ambitious plan to make cancer more curable and create a federal research agency to ensure more medical breakthroughs. Lander is known as a scientist for helping to map the human genome.
In his resignation letter, Lander said he was “devastated for causing so much pain to current and past colleagues.” Last year, the White House launched the internal investigation after a complaint about Lander’s behaviour was received.
Biden promised at the beginning of his term that he would crack down on inappropriate behaviour by US government employees. “If you work for me and I hear you’re disrespecting or belittling a colleague, I promise to fire you immediately,” Biden told staff on his first day of work.