(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
In 2015, Congressman Mike Pompeo presided over weeks of Benghazi hearings, including deposing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for eleven hours. Five years later, he’s decided that actually congress has no power to investigate the executive branch after all. Which is mighty convenient now that he’s the one facing congressional investigation for retaliating against the inspector general who was investigating him for abuse of power.
Friday night, President Trump fired State Department Inspector General (SDIG) Steven Linick, writing Nancy Pelosi that, “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.” As with his dismissal of the Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson in April, Trump will satisfy the 30-day notice requirement by placing Linick on “leave” and replacing him with another senate-confirmed officer immediately.
While Jack Goldsmith at Lawfare confirms that the maneuver itself is probably legal, retaliating against an IG for uncovering his boss’s wrongdoing — i.e. doing his damn job — is not. Linick was investigating Pompeo for multiple improprieties, both petty and serious.
Pompeo, who gave his wife an office and staff at the State Department, reportedly used Department employees to run personal errands such as picking up his dry cleaning and walking his dog. Forcing staffers to pick up your dog poop would seem to be an obvious misuse of taxpayer-funded resources and was under investigation by Linick’s office.
On a more serious note, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Eliot Engel announced that SDIG was close to concluding an investigation into Pompeo for taking advantage of Trump’s declaration in May 2019 of an Iranian emergency — all of a sudden! — to fast-track the sale of $8 billion of arms to Saudi Arabia without congressional approval.
Politico reports that Pompeo refused to sit for an interview with Linick in the investigation. And Pompeo conceded to Washington Post diplomatic correspondent Carol Morello that he was the one who advised Trump to fire Linick, who “wasn’t performing a function in a way that we had tried to get him to” and was “trying to undermine what it was that we were trying to do.”
Apparently, “what we were trying to do” was sell Saudi Arabia weapons to shoot at Yemen, despite the fact that Mohammed bin Salman dispatched a team of assassins to murder a Washington Post writer with a bone saw in the Turkish embassy. And now “we” will try to get away with it by giving congressional investigators a giant middle finger. Again.
Luckily, Pompeo got a lot of practice telling congress to get bent during the impeachment hearings. He steadfastly refused to testify or disclose documents to House investigators trying to determine how congressionally allocated funds for Ukrainian defense got held up, insisting that members of the executive branch enjoy unqualified immunity from congressional subpoena. Look for that argument to come back in a big way now that Pompeo himself is back in the spotlight.
But can he get away with it this time? Will the GOP hold Pompeo to account the way they did when the Obama administration fired Gerald Walpin, the IG for the Corporation for National and Community Service in 2009?
So, that would be a “no.” Pompeo’s going to stonewall until after the election, and Republicans are going to let him get away with it.
Legal Issues Implicated By Trump’s Firing of the State Department Inspector General [Lawfare]
Democrats claim watchdog fired by Trump was probing Pompeo’s fast-tracking of $8 billion Saudi arms sale [CNN]
Elizabeth Dye (@5DollarFeminist) lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.