Pompeo defends dismissal of State Department watchdog: 'He was investigating policies he simply didn't like'

Fox News ^ | May 28 2020 | Victor Garcia

[knighthawk]

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has defended the firing earlier this month of State Department Inspector General Steve Linick, telling "The Ingraham Angle" in an exclusive interview Thursday that "I regret that I didn't recommend to the president earlier that he be terminated.

"He was acting in a way that was deeply inconsistent with what the State Department was trying to do," Pompeo told host Laura Ingraham. "His office was leaking information, we tried to get him to be part of a team that was going to help protect his own officers from COVID-19. He refused to be an active participant. He was investigating policies he simply didn't like. That's not the role of an inspector general."

President Trump dismissed Linich on May 15, telling Congress in a letter that he no longer had confidence in the Obama appointee.

[ptsal]

State Department Inspector General Steve Linick screwed up.

[Mouton]

The original statutory IGs were a dedicated bunch. First of all, there were only a few of them not the army now. Over recent years their roles seemed to change from that of rooting out waste fraud and abuse to adding being political watchdogs. They are NOT the political monitors, that is what oversight by the Congress is about. The concept of having IGs report directly to Congress was dismissed during the drafting of the authorizing legislation They report to the agency/department head and only in extraordinary times directly to the Congress. They are NOT employees of the Congress, they work for the executive branch. Reagan when elected dismissed all the IGs and replaced them so replacing them was established early on. Trump made many errors but leaving Ohahas IGs in place was one of the major ones.

[ptsal]

Agreed.
Thanks for the concise summary.