State Department IG fired by Trump ‘was probing whether Mike Pompeo made staffer walk his dog and pick up laundry’
A STATE Department inspector general fired by Donald Trump was probing whether Mike Pompeo made a staffer run personal errands including walking his dog and picking up laundry, it is claimed.
Steve Linick was ousted on Friday night after sent a letter to about the appointee from the .
Trump said he no longer had full confidence in Linick, who held the office since 2013, and his job loss would take effect in 30 days.
He wrote: "It is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as Inspectors General.
"That is no longer the case with regard to this Inspector General."
But one Democratic aide told that Linick had been investigating for himself and his wife, Susan.
Senior State Department officials believe the dismissal was recommended by Pompeo himself, it is reported.
"Secretary Pompeo recommended the move, and President Trump agreed," a White House official said on Saturday, according to .
were quick to cry foul, and Rep Eliot Engel, of , claimed in a statement that Linick’s firing was “an act of retaliation.”
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Engel, the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey wrote an open letter to the White House, Department of State, and the State Department Office of Inspector General.
They said: "President Trump’s unprecedented removal of Inspector General Linick is only his latest sacking of an inspector general, our government’s key independent watchdogs, from a federal agency."
Engel said after Linick was fired, he “learned that the Office of the Inspector General had opened an investigation into Secretary Pompeo”.
A State Department spokesperson confirmed Mr Linick had been fired but did not comment on Mr Pompeo's role in the dismissal.
White House adviser Peter Navarro, meanwhile, downplayed the firing, saying that what Mr Trump terms the “deep state” has caused problems and those who are not loyal must go.
The State Department’s inspector general office has issued several reports that were critical of the department’s handling of personnel matters during the .
The reports have accused some political appointees of retaliating against career officials who have long worked in the government, regardless of political party.
Linick played a small role after he, in October, gave House investigators documents he received from a Pompeo associate, T Ulrich Brechbuhl.
The documents were said to include information from debunked conspiracy theories about Ukraine’s role in the .
Linick’s ousting is the latest in a string of firings of government inspectors general.
In April, , for his role in the whistleblower complaint that led to Trump’s impeachment.
That same month, Trump removed Glenn Fine as acting inspector general at the Defense Department, .
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Trump , after her office issued a report criticizing coronavirus testing delays and shortages in medical supplies in hospitals amid the pandemic.
Linick will be replaced by Stephen Akard, a former career foreign service officer who has close ties to Vice President Mike Pence, an official told AP.
Akard currently runs the department’s Office of Foreign Missions — and had been nominated to be the director general of the foreign service but withdrew after objections he wasn’t experienced enough.