In the right hands, our federal Inspectors General can help right wrongs and expose and prosecute wrongdoing. See my tribute to my mentor, friend and former client, Senior Special Agent Robert E. Tyndall. https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2020/01/fbi-hud-epa-senior-special-agent-robert.html. In the wrong hands, Inspectors General offices are a bad joke, as in the case of what EPA OIG became under Reagan appointee John C. Martin, who encumbered the position for thirteen (13) years, resigning in disgrace in 1996 in the wake of Mr. Tyndall's landmark environmental whistleblower case.
From The New York Times:
Trump Fires 17 Inspectors General in Late-Night Purge
The internal government watchdogs were believed to have been dismissed at several major agencies, though the Justice Department’s was not said to have been among them.
President Trump fired 17 inspectors general, the internal watchdogs who monitor federal agencies, on Friday night, capping a week of dramatic shake-ups of the federal bureaucracy focused on loyalty to the president, three people with knowledge of the matter said.
The sweeping move did not affect Michael E. Horowitz, the inspector general for the Justice Department, according to one of the people with knowledge of the matter. But inspectors general at several major agencies were believed to have been fired.
The Washington Post reported the firings earlier. A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
The firings threatened to upend the traditional independence of the internal watchdogs, and critics of Mr. Trump reacted with alarm.
“Inspectors general are charged with rooting out government waste, fraud, abuse and preventing misconduct,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, said in a statement. “President Trump is dismantling checks on his power and paving the way for widespread corruption.”
People involved in the Trump transition had signaled such a shake-up was likely. And it is in keeping with an effort that Mr. Trump began in early 2020, when he dismissed five inspectors general from their roles.
At the time, Mr. Trump was dealing with a raging coronavirus pandemic across the country, but he also was seeking to reshape the government to remove people he saw as trying to damage him. That included Michael Atkinson, the inspector general for the U.S. intelligence community, who dealt with the anonymous whistle-blower complaint that led to Mr. Trump’s first impeachment by the House.
Democrats accused Mr. Trump of trying to gut the independent offices.
Mr. Horowitz delivered to the Justice Department in late 2019 a report about the F.B.I. investigation of potential links between his campaign and Russians that began in 2016, called Crossfire Hurricane.
Mr. Horowitz found that the F.B.I. had a valid basis for opening the investigation, but he was critical of the application for a warrant to secretly monitor a Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page. He also said the F.B.I. director at the time the investigation was opened, James B. Comey, had violated the department’s policy with secret memos about his interactions with Mr. Trump that later became public.
The Justice Department declined to prosecute Mr. Comey, a decision that infuriated Mr. Trump.
Maggie Haberman is a White House correspondent, reporting on the second, nonconsecutive term of Donald J. Trump. More about Maggie Haberman
Annie Karni is a congressional correspondent for The Times. She writes features and profiles, with a recent focus on House Republican leadership. More about Annie Karni
1 comment:
Like they do much good anyway. Just look at the Veterans Healthcare Administration, who does or doesn't do whatever it wants. You don't get a denial of care letter from them. They just start pretending to deliver healthcare until you get pissed off and leave. I tell you who is ultimately responsible for that... the federal courts. There's no actual reprocussions for the VAs malfeasance, malpractice, and lawlessness.
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