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Federal health workers are concerned to find themselves targeted by a website called DEI Watch List, run by the right wing American Accountability Foundation.
The site has published photos, names and public information of a number of workers across health agencies, under a drop-down menu originally entitled “targets”, which has now changed to “dossiers”. It includes their employment history, social media posts and activity around DEI initiatives.
The website lists predominantly black employees who work in agencies primarily within the Department of Health and Human Services.
What is the AAF?
The American Accountability Foundation was set up to obstruct efforts to appoint Democrat nominees to the Supreme Court. More recently it compiled a list of “woke ideologues” outlining 20 leaders across the military whom it deems excessively focused on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), as well as similar left-wing initiatives, and, therefore, deemed an impediment to national security.
“The woke takeover of the military is a major threat to our national security,” AAF President Thomas Jones wrote in a letter to defence secretary pick Pete Hegseth.
“We cannot afford to have a military distracted and demoralized by leftist ideology,” he added. “Those who were responsible for these policies being instituted in the first place must be dismissed.
“AAF now works to keep vigilant watch of the DC Swamp in order to protect the interests of the American people and expose the left’s efforts to obstruct, subvert, and sabotage the America First conservative agenda.”
“Offenses” for the workers listed on the website include working on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, donating to Democrats and using pronouns in their bios.
Tom Jones, the AAF’s founder and executive director, is a longtime Beltway operative specializing in opposition research.
Records show that over the years he has worked for several of the most conservative Republicans to have served in the Senate, including Ron Johnson, of Wisconsin; Ted Cruz, of Texas; Jim DeMint, of South Carolina; and John Ensign, of Nevada, for whom Jones was briefly a legislative director. In 2016, Jones ran the opposition-research effort for Cruz’s failed Presidential campaign.
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Who is Thomas Jones?
The New Yorker's Chief Washington correspondent, Jane Mayer, said of Jones: "When I asked Jones for an interview, through the AAF’s online portal, he replied, 'Ms. Meyers . . . Go pound sand.' Citing an article that I had written debunking attacks on Bloom Raskin from moneyed interests, including the AAF, he said, 'You are a liberal hack masquerading as an investigative journalist - and not a very good one.' Jones subsequently posted this comment on his group’s Twitter account, along with my e-mail address and cell-phone number."
The website, a government worker said, is being circulated among multiple private group chats of federal health workers across agencies, as well as through social media links.
Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, learned about it Tuesday evening when a federal health worker sent it to him.
“This is a scare tactic to try to intimidate people who are trying to do their work and do it admirably,” Benjamin said. “It’s clear racism.”
A government worker said they found out theirs was among the names on the website Tuesday afternoon after a former co-worker sent them the link on social media.
“It’s unnerving,” said the person, who requested anonymity because of safety concerns. “My name and my picture is there, and in 2025, it’s very simple to Google and look up someone’s home address and all kinds of things that potentially put me at risk.”
“I don’t know what the intention of the list is for,” the person said. “It’s just kind of a scary place to be.”
