Trump Fires US State Department Inspector General

By Staff, CNN

US President Donald Trump on Friday fired State Department Inspector General Steve Linick, the latest in a series of dismissals of independent government watchdogs that have come in the wake of the President's acquittal on articles of impeachment earlier this year.

"It is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as Inspectors General. That is no longer the case with regard to this Inspector General," Trump said in a letter sent late Friday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The letter states the dismissal is effective in 30 days.

Politico first reported the dismissal.

Not long after Linick's firing was announced, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said Linick had opened an investigation into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

"I have learned that the Office of the Inspector General had opened an investigation into Secretary Pompeo," Engel said in his statement denouncing the firing. Engel did not provide any further details about the scope of this investigation or how he learned about it.

A senior State Department official confirmed that Pompeo made the recommendation that Linick be removed, but the official did not know the reasons why.

Requests for comment from the State Department Inspector General's office and the State Department itself regarding the investigation revealed by Engel were not returned Friday evening. Engel's office declined to provide further details about his statement regarding an investigation.