Steve Linick

State Department inspector general who faulted Trump administration personnel moves becomes latest watchdog fired Published: May 18, 2020 at 4:29 p.m. ET Associated Press Secretary of State Mike Pompeo initially provided no reason for Steve Linick’s removal from his job, in which he had served since 2013, according to a senior department official; on Monday Pompeo reportedly said Linick had been ‘trying to undermine what it was that we were trying to do’ WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has fired the State Department’s inspector general, an Obama administration appointee whose office was critical of alleged political bias in the department’s management. The ouster is the latest in a series of moves against independent executive-branch watchdogs who have found fault with the Trump administration. A senior department official said Pompeo removed Steve Linick from his job Friday but gave no reason for his removal. Linick had served in the job since 2013. Linick’s office had issued several reports critical of the department’s handling of personnel matters, including accusing some of President Donald Trump’s appointees of retaliating against career officials. Trump said Monday that the firing of Linick came at Pompeo’s behest, while Pompeo reportedly said Linick had become an obstacle to “what it was that we were trying to do.” House Democrats demanded that all records concerning Linick’s dismissal be preserved and turned over to the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by the end of this week. Pulse:Trump on the firing of State Department inspector general Steve Linick: ‘Mike [Pompeo] requested that I do it’ The inspector-general office under Steve Linick had criticized several Trump appointees for their treatment of career staff for apparently being insufficiently supportive of Trump and his policies. Linick was to 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. He had been nominated to be the director general of the foreign service but withdrew after objections he wasn’t experienced enough. Linick, a former assistant U.S. attorney in California and Virginia, had overseen inspector-general reports that were highly critical of the department’s management policies during the Trump administration. His office had criticized several Trump appointees for their treatment of career staff for apparently being insufficiently supportive of President Donald Trump and his policies. Under Linick, the State Department’s inspector general office was also critical of former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s hiring freeze and attempts to streamline the agency by slashing its funding and personnel. Trump has been taking aim lately at inspectors general. In several instances this year, news of their firings or demotions has broken late on Fridays. On Monday he suggested that any department head in his executive branch had free rein to seek the removal of watchdogs appointed under previous administrations. In April, he fired Michael Atkinson, the inspector general for the intelligence community, for his role in the whistleblower complaint that led to Trump’s impeachment. Then Trump removed Glenn Fine as acting inspector general at the Defense Department, a move that stripped him of his post as chairman of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee. During a White House briefing on COVID-19, Trump questioned the independence of an inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services over a report that said there was a shortage of supplies and testing at hospitals. Pompeo reportedly said in an interview on Monday that Linick was “trying to undermine what it was that we were trying to do”: Trump reportedly said he didn’t know Linick and, in fact, had never heard of him but was asked to remove him from his post by the secretary of state: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/state-department-inspector-general-who-faulted-trump-administration-moves-is-fired-by-pompeo-2020-05-15?mod=article_inline