An American president’s personnel issues are typically a mundane part of the job — unless the man in office happens to be President Donald Trump, in which case it becomes the catalyst for yet another investigation.
On Friday, Trump sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi giving the requisite 30 days notice that State Department Inspector General Steve Linick would be removed from his position.
“Trump has fired the State Department inspector general in his latest effort targeting key watchdogs across the government,” is how Manu Raju of CNN characterized it in a tweet with an image of the president’s letter.
“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.”
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. pic.twitter.com/9U4Q3HXd9W
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 16, 2020
But the president is completely within his right to fire an inspector general with the appropriate notice.
Nevertheless, as if right on cue, Pelosi expressed her outrage with the proper legalese to justify what inevitably comes next: another investigation.
“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,” Pelosi tweeted regarding the ouster of the Obama administration holdover.
Sure enough, the “dangerous” firing prompted an investigation which Democratic lawmakers launched Saturday, according to Reuters (although these days, just about everything the president does leads to some sort of Democratic investigation).
New York Rep. Eliot Engel, the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, and New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, accused the president of misconduct in an open letter to the White House.
The Democratic politicians asserted that Trump wrongly fired Linick because of his investigation of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, calling it an “illegal act of retaliation.”
“We unalterably oppose the politically-motivated firing of inspectors general and the President’s gutting of these critical positions.”
David Adams
Article URL : https://www.westernjournal.com/pelosi-called-trumps-ig-firing-dangerous-silent-obama-went-entire-term-without-one/?