With the firing of another watchdog, the White House has sparked a new investigation.

Probe to look into dismissal as possible retaliation by Pompeo

WASHINGTON — Democrats demanded on Saturday that the White House hand over all records related to President Donald Trump’s latest firing of a federal watchdog, this time at the State Department.

And they suggested that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was responsible, in what “may be an illegal act of retaliation.”

“We unalterably oppose the politically-motivated firing of inspectors general and the President’s gutting of these critical positions,” the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee wrote in a letter to the administration announcing their investigation.

Trump announced late Friday that he was firing the inspector general, Steve Linick, an Obama administration appointee whose office was critical of what it saw as political bias in the State Department’s

management.

New York Rep. Eliot Engel and New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez sent letters to the White House, the State Department and the inspector general’s office asking that administration officials preserve all records related to Linick’s dismissal and provide them to the committees by this coming Friday. They promised to “look deeply into this matter” and said they would seek to interview White House officials. They said they “trust that the White House will cooperate fully with our investigation.”

A senior department official said Trump removed Linick from his job Friday but gave no reason for the action. In a letter to Congress, Trump said that Linick, who had held the job since 2013, no longer had his full confidence and that his removal would take effect in 30 days. Trump did not mention Linick by name in his letter.

Democrats soon cried foul. Engel suggested that Linick was fired in part in retaliation for opening an unspecified investigation into Pompeo.

Engel offered no details. Two congressional aides said it involved allegations that Pompeo may have improperly treated staff.

In the Senate, Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa on Saturday defended the role of the inspector general in the government and noted that Congress requires written reasons to justify removal.

“A general lack of confidence simply is not sufficient detail to satisfy Congress,” Grassley said in a statement.

Linick will be replaced by Stephen Akard, a former career foreign service officer who has close ties to Vice President Mike Pence, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Akard currently runs the department’s Office of Foreign Missions.

Steve Linick