Watchdog group issues ‘urgent’ request for Pompeo records after IG firing
An independent watchdog group that is suing the State Department for public records on Mike Pompeo’s conduct as secretary of state formally requested an expedited release of the documents on Monday, amid the firing of the department’s inspector general, Steve Linick.
The group, American Oversight, is pursuing the release of documents that shed light on whistleblower complaints to the inspector general’s office that directly involve Pompeo.
“Given reports that the president is planning to remove the State Inspector General for investigating Secretary Pompeo’s conduct, the public urgently needs additional information about complaints submitted to the Office of the Inspector General that concern the secretary’s conduct,” the group said in a letter addressed to the State Department and the Justice Department.
Linick’s firing on Friday night raised alarm bells among Democratic lawmakers, including House Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Eliot Engel of New York, who had learned that Linick was investigating a host of activities related to the secretary of state, including whether he had directed State Department personnel to conduct personal business on his behalf.
The inspector general was also investigating President Donald Trump’s emergency declaration last year that expedited an arms sale to Saudi Arabia, Engel said on Monday.
The request for accelerated release of documents is a formal process that typically compels a response from the State Department’s FOIA office, and portends heated legal wrangling to come in a court case that first started in February over allegations of the secretary’s misconduct.
The State Department did not immediately comment Monday on the request.
Trump asserted Monday that he had the right to fire Linick, but he also hung the decision completely on Pompeo.
“I don’t know him at all. I never even heard of him, but I was asked to by the State Department, by Mike,” Trump said.
“I have the absolute right as president to terminate. I said, ‘Who appointed him?’ They said, ‘President Obama.’ I said, ‘I’ll terminate him.’”
In an interview with the Washington Post on Monday, Pompeo denied any knowledge of Linick’s investigations into his conduct.
This story was originally published May 18, 2020 at 4:20 PM with the headline "Watchdog group issues ‘urgent’ request for Pompeo records after IG firing."
