 |
| Andrea Hanks/White House
Congressional Democrats said the State Department watchdog who was fired by President Trump late last Friday night was investigating the administration’s effort to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia without congressional approval.
House Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., said in a statement that he learned another reason for ousted Inspector General Steve Linick’s firing was that he was looking into a $7 billion Saudi arms sale without congressional approval.
Eliot said in a Politico article that “[Linick’s] office was investigating — at my request — Trump’s phony declaration of an emergency so he could send weapons to Saudi Arabia.”
“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.”
Previously, Linick was looking into whether Mike Pompeo was using a political appointee to perform personal tasks like walking Pompeo’s dogs, picking up dry cleaning, and make dinner reservations.
Mike Pompeo told the Washington Post that he advised President Trump to fire Linick, but claims that he didn’t know Linick was investigating allegations surrounding him. “I went to the president and made clear to him that Inspector General Linick wasn’t performing a function in a way that we had tried to get him to, that was additive for the State Department, very consistent with what the statue say he’s supposed to be doing,” Pompeo said. “The kinds of activities he’s supported to undertake to make us better, to improve us. “It is not possible that this decision, or my recommendation rather, to the president rather, was based on any effort to retaliate for any investigation that was going on or is currently going on,” he said. “I’m not briefed on it. I usually see these investigations in final draft from 24 hours, 48 hours before the IG is prepared to release them.” “So it’s simply not possible for this to be an act of retaliation. End of Story,” Pompeo concluded. |
