The National Endowment for the Arts has reassigned its communications director following his participation in a controversial conference call last month, FOX News has learned.
But the organization isn’t saying what job Yosi Sergant now holds.
“Can’t comment on that at this point,” spokeswoman Victoria Hutter told FOXNews.com on Friday. She declined to confirm that he was reassigned as a result of the controversy.
“We’ll have more to say about that later,” she said.
Sergant was one of several officials on an hour-long conference call on Aug. 10 hosted by the NEA, the White House Office of Public Engagement and United We Serve, a nationwide initiative launched by President Obama to increase volunteerism.
Patrick Courrielche, one of roughly 75 artists, musicians, writers, poets and others on the hour-long call, said Sergant was among those who encouraged the artists to create works in their respective fields that would show support for Obama’s domestic agenda in areas such as health care, energy and the environment.
But, in a statement to FOXNews.com, the NEA said the conference call was not intended to promote legislative agendas.
“This call was not a means to promote any legislative agenda and any suggestions to that end are simply false,” the statement read. “The NEA regularly does outreach to various organizations to inform of the work we are doing and the resources available to them.”
White House spokesman Shin Inouye told FOXNews.com that the conference call was not a “means to promote any legislative agenda,” and “the White House did not ask for [Sergant] to resign.”
“It was a discussion on the United We Serve effort and how all Americans can participate,” Inouye wrote.
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