Top Democrats overseeing foreign relations in both the House and the Senate launched an investigation Saturday into the ousting of the State Department’s inspector general, alleging the dismissal was politically motivated.
President Trump late Friday evening informed Congress he was preparing to fire Steve Linick from his post of inspector general (IG), prompting swift rebuke from Democrats who accused the president of attempting to block an investigation by the IG into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) said reports indicate that Pompeo personally made the recommendation for the president to fire Linick to disrupt an investigation into the secretary himself.
“Reports indicate that Secretary Pompeo personally made the recommendation to fire Mr. Linick, and it is our understanding that he did so because the inspector general had opened an investigation into wrongdoing by Secretary Pompeo himself,” the lawmakers wrote in a statement.
“Such an action, transparently designed to protect Secretary Pompeo from personal accountability, would undermine the foundation of our democratic institutions and may be an illegal act of retaliation,” the lawmakers added.
A Democratic aide told NPR that Linick was looking into whether Pompeo misused a political appointee at the Department of State to perform personal tasks for the secretary and his wife.
“We unalterably oppose the politically-motivated firing of inspectors general and the President’s gutting of these critical positions,” Menendez and Engel wrote.
The lawmakers demanded that the White House, State Department and Office of the Inspector General preserve all records related to Linick’s firing and turn over information to the committees within one week.
Linick is expected to be replaced by Ambassador Stephen Akard, a veteran career foreign service officer who currently serves as the director of the Office of Foreign Missions. He was confirmed by the Senate for his post as director, but he’ll take over the IG position in an acting capacity until the president nominates a replacement.
Linick is one of a number of IGs recently dismissed by the president, who had earlier fired the watchdog from the Department of Justice, Michael Atkinson, and Glenn Fine, who was named to oversee the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Pompeo is one of the president’s longest-serving senior officials, moving from director of the CIA to secretary of State in March 2018 following the abrupt firing of then-Secretary Rex Tillerson.
Pompeo, a former Republican congressman from Kansas, is also one of the president’s most ardent defenders when pressed by the media.
Likewise, Trump has praised the secretary while attacking the agency he oversees — sometimes in the same breath.
In the past, Trump said Pompeo was doing a “fantastic” job while referring to the State Department as the “Deep State.” Trump has accused career civil servants, who take an oath of nonpartisanship, of undermining him in the agency based on their political leanings.
Linick also played a role in the House’s impeachment investigation into the president. The former IG provided Congress a dossier in October of accusations compiled by Rudy Giuliani and delivered to the State Department that alleged corrupt acts by former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden over their dealings in Ukraine.
Democrats described the dossier as containing “debunked theories and false statements” and used it as ammunition in their argument the president was acting on political motivations rather than anti-corruption.
Trump was acquitted in a Senate trial in January on two impeachment charges, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.