Friday night, Donald Trump announced he wanted to fire the State Department Inspector General because he no longer had full faith in Steve Linick to do the job, BBC News reported. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi spoke out about the president’s move to get rid of the IG. Linick had recently opened an investigation into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Pelosi accused the president of retaliating against the IG and other public servants in the U.S. government for doing their jobs.
“The late-night, weekend firing of State Department IG Steve Linick is an acceleration of the President’s dangerous pattern of retaliation against the patriotic public servants charged with conducting oversight on behalf of the American people,” she tweeted .
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The Speaker also linked to her press release on the matter. In it, she said that the IG had honorably performed his duty to the country by upholding the Constitution, and the president punished him for it. Pelosi also noted that the House had passed the Heroes Act, and the State Department IG oversees how the funds allotted to help the country recover from the coronavirus pandemic are spent.
“The President must cease his pattern of reprisal and retaliation against the public servants who are working to keep Americans safe, particularly during this time of global emergency.”
According to a report from The Inquisitr , the Secretary of State is the one who recommended that Trump fire Linick. Linick was appointed by former President Barack Obama and oversaw spending to ensure that state department funds weren’t mismanaged. Before that, Linick served as a Justice Department official under George W. Bush. Although the full details of the investigation that Linick opened into Pompeo aren’t available, anonymous sources said it was to look into claims that the Secretary of State had improperly asked staff members to do personal business.
Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, called for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to get to the bottom of Trump firing Linick. Murphy also said that the Senate could not let the action stand if Trump fired the IG in retaliation.
Trump also previously fired Michael Atkinson, who was the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community. Atkinson brought forward the whistleblower complaint about Trump’s withholding of funds to Ukraine, which ultimately led to the House of Representatives investigating and impeaching the president. The Senate chose not to remove Trump from office earlier this year.
