NY lawmaker said he was misled about veterans being kicked out of hotels and replaced by migrants

New York State Assemblyman Brian Maher (R) told a local outlet earlier this week that he was misled about a story involving homeless veterans being removed from hotels and replaced by migrants.  

The story, which was first covered by the New York Post, reported that Sharon Toney-Finch, CEO of the Yerik Israel Toney Foundation, said that 20 homeless veterans were informed they had to leave hotels they were staying in and find somewhere else to go. 

This resulted in Democrats and Republicans in New York calling for an investigation. Allegations have now come out that the whole story had been fabricated.

Maher has called on the attorney general of Orange County, where the expulsions allegedly took place, and the New York district attorney to investigate potential misconduct by the Yerik Israel Toney Foundation.

Multiple hotels that were mentioned in the allegations have come out and said that this information is false, according to the New York Post. 

Maher also contacted Toney-Finch, an Iraq War veteran who received the Purple Heart, to get her side of the story. He was left waiting for her at a bank for three hours where she was supposed to provide him verification that the foundation had paid for shelter for the vets, according to The Daily Wire.  

Maher said he has worked with Toney-Finch and her foundation over the last few years.

He asked her several times on the phone for proof, and began to believe she was lying. “Shortly after that, when I asked her why she would make something like that up, she said, ‘I had to help the veterans,’” he told the New York Post.

“This is something I believe hurt a lot of people,” Maher said during his interview with the Times Union, adding that he was “devastated and disheartened” as more details came out. 

“Their gross misrepresentation of the facts surrounding our homeless veterans is appalling,” he later said in a statement.