Trump fires at least a dozen government watchdogs
The Trump administration fired at least a dozen federal monitors late Friday, a potentially illegal move that could face court challenges.
Speaking from the Senate floor on Saturday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the watchdog firings a “chilling wipeout.”
“These dismissals are Donald Trump’s way of telling us that he is afraid of accountability and hostile to facts and transparency,” said Schumer, a New York Democrat.
The White House has not confirmed the firing and did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.
According to the BBC’s US partner CBS News, the affected inspectors general were sent an email overnight Friday from the Director of Presidential Personnel, informing them that “due to changing priorities, your position as Inspector General… is being terminated with immediate effect.” Is”.
CBS said the group of fired watchdogs includes the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services and the inspector general of the Small Business Administration.
According to the New York Times, competing lists of fired watchdogs were circulating. Watchdogs from the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Transportation and Veterans Affairs, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, were reportedly considered.
As part of a wave of reforms aimed at curbing corruption, waste, and fraud, Congress created the Inspector General in the wake of the Watergate scandal. Independent watchdogs – those who work within federal agencies but are not controlled by the heads of those agencies – are meant to serve as guards against mismanagement and abuse of power.
Although they are presidential appointees, they are expected to be non-partisan.
The firing may have violated a law that requires the White House to give Congress 30 days notice and case-specific information before firing the federal inspector general.
Hannibal Ware, inspector general of the Small Business Administration and head of the council that oversees all agencies, sent a letter to Sergio Gore, head of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, suggesting that the dismissals were invalid.
“I suggest you reach out to the White House to get the action you want,” Ware wrote. “At this point, we do not believe the actions taken are legally sufficient to fire the presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed inspectors general.”
Democrats immediately criticized the president for the move.
Schumer said the move was a “preview of the chaotic approach” being taken by Trump and his administration.
Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat and ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, called the firing a “Friday night coup” and an “attack on transparency and accountability.”
Some Republican lawmakers, including Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Senator Susan Collins of Maine, also expressed concern over the purge.
“I don’t understand why anyone would fire people whose mission it is to root out waste, fraud and abuse,” Collins said at the Capitol on Saturday. “I don’t understand it.”
