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 the President sent a letter to about the appointee from the .
were quick to cry foul, and Rep Eliot Engel, of , claimed in a statement that Linick’s firing was “an act of retaliation.”
'DEEP STATE' CLAIMS
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.
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.
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, .
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.