On May 15 President Trump fired the nonpartisan inspector general of the State Department. This is the fifth inspector general Trump has fired in the past two months. Trump’s firing of five inspectors general continues a pattern of behavior intended to shield the presidency from oversight and should be deeply troubling to all Americans. Congress must hold the Trump administration accountable for these unprecedented and unethical firings.
To Do:
Contact your members of Congress to investigate these firings and ask that the investigations overseen by the terminated inspectors general continue unimpeded. In five minutes or less, submit a letter to all of your elected representatives at once via our website. You have the option to either write your own letter or answer some short prompts to have a personalized letter created for you. Go HERE to submit a letter.
Background:
The Trump administration has now fired five inspectors general (IGs) in the past six weeks. This is not normal. President Obama fired one inspector general during his eight-year term. President George W. Bush did not fire any inspectors general. Inspectors general are independent, nonpartisan offices within each agency of the executive branch tasked with investigating fraud, abuse, misconduct, and other manifestations of unethical government. Under the 2008 Inspector General Reform Act, presidents are required to provide Congress a written explanation of why they want to remove an inspector general at least 30 days prior to the date of termination.
Of the five IGs President Trump has fired, four of them were investigating or had recently released documentation of fraud, waste, abuse, or mismanagement of federal government resources:
1. Michael Atkinson, inspector general of the intelligence community, forwarded to Congress the whistleblower complaint documenting Trump’s abuse of power in withholding congressionally allocated funds to Ukraine while pressuring Ukraine to start a politically motivated investigation against his Democratic rival, Joe Biden. The complaint led to Trump’s impeachment.
2. Glenn Fine, acting inspector general for the Department of Defense, was slated to become chairman of a new committee that would oversee $2.2 trillion of coronavirus response spending to ensure that it was not allocated in a way that was fraudulent or politically motivated.
3. Christi Grimm, principal deputy inspector for the Department of Health and Human Services, authored a report documenting nationwide shortages of ventilators, personal protective equipment, and other medical supplies necessary to combat COVID-19. Three weeks after releasing the report, Grimm was fired.
4. Steve Linick, Department of State inspector general, was investigating whether the Trump administration illegally bypassed a congressional freeze on arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The State Department inspector general was also investigating Pompeo for misuse of government funds by tasking State Department employees with running personal errands for himself and his wife. This abuse of government resources for personal benefit is also a deeply unethical pattern within the Trump administration.
5. Mitch Behm, inspector general of the Department of Transportation, was investigating whether Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao misused government resources by funneling federal transportation dollars to Kentucky, where her husband, Mitch McConnell, serves as a senator and is facing a close election this fall.
This abuse of power violates multiple MWEG Principles of Ethical Government, including:
(1) Every government official and institution has a duty to respect the rule of law, including accepted processes for how the law is to be established, executed, and interpreted.
(a) People in positions of power should not lightly violate or discard long-standing political norms, especially norms that serve to limit the abuse of power (see D&C 121:39). (b) Government officials and institutions should be honest and transparent, insofar as possible without harming national security and individual rights (see D&C 123:13; Alma 37:25). (c) Elected and appointed officials and government employees alike must eschew conflicts of interest and avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest in fidelity to the public trust. Appointees to specialized government roles should be well-qualified to serve in those roles (see Mosiah 29:35-36 and D&C 134:3).
The political independence of inspectors general is essential to their ability to fulfill their oversight role. Republican Senators Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, and Chuck Grassley, as well as many Democratic representatives, have raised concerns about these firings. We urge all of our governmental leaders to insist on ethical government and protection for the nonpartisan inspectors general who help ensure it.
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