President Donald Trump has ousted yet another watchdog charged with overseeing the behavior of Donald Trump or one of his favored officials. In this instance, Inspector General Steven A. Linick was removed late Friday night at the request of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Linick just so happened to be investigating the misuse of political appointees by Pompeo and his wife at the time of his ouster, as well as the President's behavior regarding Saudi Arabia. Linick is now the fourth government watchdog Trump has sought to remove or had fired in the last six weeks since the President successfully avoided impeachment.
Linick's Investigations
There are currently two investigations headed by Linick which lawmakers and the media view as potential reasons for his firing. First, it has been revealed that Linick was investigating Pompeo due to his treatment of political appointees. Linick was looking into whether or not Pompeo made a staffer pick up his dry cleaning, walk his dog, make dinner reservations for Pompeo and his wife, and other personal errands. This isn't the first time Pompeo has been investigated for an offense of this kind. It was Pompeo who recommended that the President seek Linick's removal, and Trump agreed.
However, Linick was also investigating action by Donald Trump regarding Saudi Arabia.
"His office was investigating - at my request - Trump's phony declaration of an emergency so he could send weapons to Saudi Arabia," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y. said. "We don't have the full picture yet, but it's troubling that Secretary Pompeo wanted Mr. Linick pushed out before this work could be completed. The administration should comply with the probe I launched with Senator Menendez and turn over all the records requested from the Department by Friday."
The Saudi Arabia investigation centered on an $8.1 billion arms sale by the U.S, a deal objected to by Republicans and Democrats alike as a potential threat to human rights in Yemen.
Linick's removal will take effect in 30 days at which point he will be replaced by former Pence aide Stephen J. Akard.
Reasons for Removal
The reason for Linick's firing has yet to be made public but it may be important to the question of whether or not the President had the legal authority to remove this watchdog.
Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson went on CNN on Sunday to say that he had been told why Linick had been fired but declined to explain that reasoning. He did voice his own complaints about the Inspector General, however, saying "both Sen. (Chuck) Grassley and I had a real problem with his responsiveness to, in particular, one oversight request," he said.
Grassley, however, soon came forward with a statement to contest Johnson's implication that this "real problem" or Trump's lack of confidence in Linick might be sufficient reason to remove the Inspector General.
"As I've said before, Congress requires written reasons justifying an IG's removal. A general lack of confidence simply is not sufficient detail to satisfy Congress," Grassley wrote.
Democratic leadership says they have received no explanation for the ouster beyond the lack of confidence mentioned in the original announcement.
"This is new to us and typical of the White House -- announcing something that is very unsavory, they would do it late on a Friday night," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on CBS. "Even Republicans in Congress are concerned."
Pelosi went on to acknowledge that Trump has the authority to fire inspectors general but said that this removal could be viewed as "retaliation... [and] that could be unlawful".
So the question is: did Trump fire Linick because he was investigating William Barr? According to Trump, the answer is no. So far, he has claimed the firing was due to a lack of confidence in Linick. However, as stated by Sen. Grassley, this reason isn't sufficient to give the President the legal authority to fire Linick.