Trump Administration Ousts Yet Another Inspector General

New York Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel said that the State Department’s Steve Linick had just opened an investigation into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

State Department Inspector General Steve Linick has been removed from his position, according to media reports.

Linick, a Justice Department veteran appointed in 2013, is the latest of a number of watchdogs ejected recently as President Donald Trump seeks to purge anyone from the government he believes has not been loyal to him.

“It is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as Inspectors General. That is no longer the case with regard to this Inspector General,” Trump wrote in a letter sent late Friday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). The letter stated that the dismissal will be effective in 30 days.

Trump has fired the State Department inspector general in his latest effort targeting key watchdogs across the government. According to this letter he sent to Pelosi, Trump says he “no longer” has the “fullest confidence” in the State inspector general. Effective in 30 days.

View image on Twitter

Linick played a minor role in the House impeachment proceedings against Trump, noted Politico, which was the first to report his ouster. He provided documents to House leaders that had been given to the State Department by Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.

But Rep. Eliot  Engel (D.-N.Y.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement that Linick had recently opened an investigation into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The congressman provided no other details. But Engel said the timing suggested “an unlawful act of retaliation.”

A source told CNN, The Washington Post and NPR that the probe involved possible misuse of a political appointee’s time by Pompeo and his wife for personal tasks.

🔴 @NPR has learned ousted State Department Inspector General Steve Linik was looking into allegations Secretary of State Pompeo was misusing a Department political employee for personal tasks for both Pompeo and his wife.

Pelosi slammed Linick’s removal as part of a “dangerous pattern of retaliation against patriotic public servants charged with conducting oversight on behalf of the American people.”

Ambassador Stephen Akard, a State Department appointee who worked for Vice President Mike Pence when he was governor of Indiana, has been tapped as Linick’s interim replacement. Akard was Pence’s chief of staff for the Indiana Economic Development Corp.

A State Department representative told Politico that Akard, a former Foreign Service officer, “will now lead the Office of the Inspector General at the State Department” in an “acting” role.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) called the “Friday night attack” by Trump “shameful.” He added in a tweet: “At this point, the President’s paralyzing fear of any oversight is undeniable.”

Shameful. Another late Friday night attack on independence, accountability, and career officials.

At this point, the President’s paralyzing fear of any oversight is undeniable. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/15/state-department-inspector-general-fired-261536 

State Department watchdog ousted

Inspector general Steve Linick is to be replaced by Amb. Stephen Akard, an ally of Vice President Mike Pence.

Walter Shaub, former head of the U.S. Government Office of Ethics under both Barack Obama and Trump, praised Linick as an “honorable” inspector general who “dug in on issues, not politics.” He pointed out that Linick had once written a critical report on Democrat Hillary Clinton for keeping emails while she was secretary of state on a personal server.

Steve Linick is an honorable inspector general who dug in on issues, not politics. Before the Trump supporters start painting him as a partisan “deep stater,” it might be worth recalling that he wrote an investigative report criticizing Hillary Clinton. View image on Twitter

Steve Vladeck

Nothing to see here—just another late-Friday-night firing of an Inspector General by the Trump administration:https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/15/state-department-inspector-general-fired-261536 

Inspectors General are tasked with investigating fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, & illegality. Small wonder that Trump’s allergic to them.

Shaub accused Trump of “tearing down the fabric of our republic” with his vendetta against inspectors general. He pointed out that the law requiring Trump to give Congress 30 days notice of Linick’s removal gives lawmakers time to fight his decision.

Congress amended the law in 2008 “to enhance the independence of the Inspectors General” by, among other things, adding the 30-day advance notice requirement.https://www.congress.gov/110/plaws/publ409/PLAW-110publ409.htm 

Last month Trump booted intelligence community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who forwarded the whistleblower complaint that led to the president’s impeachment.

Trump also forced out acting Pentagon Inspector General Glenn Fine, who had been chosen chairman of the federal panel Congress created to oversee management of the government’s $2 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package.