US government shutdown: Education dept employees' out-of-office emails altered to blame Democrats; claim 'none of us contested'

While the US government has already been shut down, some of the employees of the education department discovered their email accounts had been manipulated during their furlough this week. Five employees of the education department discovered that while they were out of the office, they had included partisan talking points that blamed the government shutdown on Democrats. The employees, who spoke with NBC News and provided copies of their out-of-office messages, reported that the wording had been altered from their original compositions. All are civil servants, not political appointees, and requested anonymity out of fear of professional repercussions. Initially, Education officials sent employees templates of nonpartisan out-of-office messages to use in their emails. Several employe