The White House fired the State Department Inspector General late Friday, according to a State Department spokesperson and a senior congressional aide.
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Pompeo recommended to Trump that inspector general Steve Linick be fired and supported the president’s decision, a senior State Department official told ABC News.Under Linick, the inspector general’s office had repeatedly found fault with the Trump administration’s handling of the agency, especially the treatment of career staff and its efforts to remodel its workforce, including through a damaging hiring freeze.
But Engel seemed to suggest another reason Linick was ousted, saying late Friday that Linick’s office “had opened an investigation into Secretary Pompeo” and that his firing “amid such a probe strongly suggests that this is an unlawful act of retaliation.” In addition to Linick, Trump removed the intelligence community inspector general Michael Atkinson on April 3, who alerted Congress to the whistleblower complaint that ultimately led to his impeachment -- an oversight function required of Atkinson by law. The White House said Trump no longer had confidence in him, while the president said he was “not a big Trump fan, that I can tell you.”
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