Trump supporters stand on the U.S. Capitol Police’s armored vehicle while others take the steps of the Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress works to certify electoral college votes.
Bill Clark | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
GitHub, owned by Microsoft, the code-sharing site for software developers, said Sunday that the company’s human resources chief resigned after an investigation into the dismissal of a Jewish employee by the company found “significant errors of judgment and procedures.”
On Jan. 8, GitHub fired one of its employees after raising concerns about colleagues in Washington DC when a mob of protesters supporting President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol. The fired employee told TechCrunch in an interview published Friday that he made a comment in Slack saying, “stay safe homies, Nazis are about.”
Fellow GitHub employees were concerned about why the company fired the employee immediately afterward, according to a statement by Chief Operating Officer Erica Brescia. Following an independent investigation, the company discovered “significant errors of judgment and procedural errors” related to the employee’s dismissal, Brescia said.
“Our head of HR resigned from GitHub yesterday morning, Saturday, January 16,” Brescia said in a blog post on Sunday. The company hasn’t disclosed the name of the human resources chief who resigned, but Carrie Olesen served in the first place.
A supporter of President Donald Trump carries a Conferderate battle flag on the second floor of the Capitol at the entrance to the Senate after breaching security defenses, in Washington, January 6, 2021.
Mike Theiler | Reuters
A company spokesperson was not immediately available for comment. Brescia said GitHub “immediately reversed” its decision to split with the employee and is in communication with its representative. “
“We want to say publicly to the employee: we sincerely apologize,” said Brescia.
The company’s general manager, Nat Friedman, acknowledged in the position that the violent crowd included “ Nazis and white supremacists. ”
On Wednesday, FBI spokeswoman Christina Pullen said in a statement that a man photographed during the riot wearing a “Camp Auschwitz” shirt was arrested, NBC News reported. A rioter who was photographed in the halls of the Capitol with a Confederate battle flag was also arrested the next day.
“Employees are free to raise concerns about Nazis, anti-Semitism, white supremacy or any other form of discrimination or harassment in internal discussions,” Friedman said in a statement.