Democrats investigate firing of watchdog at State Department
WASHINGTON — Two top Democrats have told the Trump administration to preserve all records related to the Friday removal of the State Department’s inspector general, a late-night move that led House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to warn of an acceleration in a “dangerous pattern of retaliation” against federal watchdogs.
Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., launched an investigation Saturday into the ouster of Steve Linick, the latest in a string of weekend removals of oversight officials who have clashed with the Trump administration. Engel, the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said Linick was fired after opening an investigation into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and said the timing suggested “an unlawful act of retaliation.”
“President Trump’s unprecedented removal of Inspector General Linick is only his latest sacking of an inspector general, our government’s key independent watchdogs, from a federal agency,” he wrote with Menendez in an open letter.
Linick, a 2013 Obama appointee who has criticized department leadership for alleged retribution against staffers, will be replaced by Stephen Akard, a State Department spokesperson confirmed Friday. The State Department did not explain Linick’s removal or respond to further questions.
A Democratic congressional aide said Linick was looking into Pompeo’s “misuse of a political appointee at the Department to perform personal tasks for himself and Mrs. Pompeo.”
Menendez and Engel wrote to the White House, Department of State, and the State Department Office of Inspector General requesting officials turn over information to their committees by May 22.