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President Donald Trump fired the inspectors general of more than a dozen federal agencies in a purge Friday evening, according to a Trump administration official, paving the way for him to appoint his own picks for the roles as an independent oversight body.
The Agency’s inspectors general received an email late Friday from Sergio Gor, head of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, informing them that “changing priorities” had led to the “termination” of their positions effective immediate, according to a person familiar with the matter. . The shakeup affected a large part of the federal government, including the departments of State, Energy, Interior, Defense and Transportation.
During Trump’s first term, he emptied his administration independent government watchdogs he viewed as disloyal. A IG conducts investigations and audits of any potential malfeasance, fraud, waste or abuse by a government agency or its personnel, and publishes reports and recommendations on its findings. An inspector general’s office is supposed to operate independently.
Partly in response to Trump’s latest firings of IGs, Congress has built new safeguards intended to protect them. A 2022 law requires the White House to provide substantial justification for firing any inspector general.
The firings raised concerns among some Republican senators, including Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa, a known “watchdog” for IGs, who said Congress had not received the 30-day notice from the White House required by federal law.
Trump said Saturday night that “I did it because it’s a very common thing to do,” telling reporters aboard Air Force One that “not all of them” had been removed. He added, without providing evidence: “I don’t know them, but some people thought some were being unfair or not doing their job. This is a very common thing to do.
According to a report of the Congressional Research Service, “practice has been adverse to removing GIs during presidential transitions” after President Ronald Reagan removed all inspectors general in a controversial decision following his 1981 inauguration.
“Since 1981, IGs have remained in their posts during each presidential transition,” the report states.
The Washington Post was first to report on the Trump administration’s layoffs.
The chairman of the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency said in a statement Saturday that the law regarding the removal of inspectors general must be respected.
“GIs are not safe from deletion. However, the law must be followed to protect independent oversight of the U.S. government,” said Hannibal “Mike” Ware, who was removed as inspector general of the Small Business Administration.
Ware emphasized the nonpartisan nature of the IG while detailing the duties of the position. “Federal government IGs work every day on behalf of American taxpayers to combat waste, fraud and abuse in their agency programs and operations,” he said.
Republican senators, including Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota, said they had received no information or explanation of the White House’s decision.
“I haven’t, so I better reserve my comments.” I’m sure I will,” Thune told CNN.
Other Republican senators expressed concern that they had not received advance notice and the widespread nature of the layoffs.
“What I understand is that this is relatively unprecedented in that there was no advance notice,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, adding: “I can understand why a new president would want to critically examine the IGs and their role that they played within the various agencies, but…the dismissal without notice of everyone, I think, has caused concern.
Pressed on whether she wanted the White House to provide more information, Murkowski said she would trust Grassley to “help them through this.”
“There may be good reasons why the IGs were fired,” Grassley said Saturday in a statement provided by his office. “We need to know if that’s the case.” I would like further explanation from President Trump. Regardless, the detailed 30-day notice of revocation required by law was not provided to Congress.
Sen. Susan Collins also expressed concern over the firings, arguing that firing inspectors general did not fit with Trump’s stated goal of ending corruption.
“I don’t understand why we would fire individuals whose mission is to eradicate waste, fraud and abuse. So that leaves a gap in what I know is a priority for President Trump,” the Maine Republican told reporters.
Sen. Mike Rounds said the president should be given an opportunity to explain his decision. “Honestly, I would just like to guess at this point what that actually entails. So I’m going to wait and find out what that means in terms of other people’s intervention. Are there any assistants involved? Was it specific to individuals? I just don’t have that information,” he said.
“I heard about it briefly this morning. I’m sure there will be a discussion about it here, but I don’t know what his logic was on that, and I don’t know the reasoning for it. We will give him the opportunity to explain himself,” added the South Dakota Republican.
Democrats criticized the layoffs, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer calling the move a “scary purge” and warning that the layoffs could trigger “a golden age of abuse in government, and even corruption.” .
This story has been updated with additional reporting.
CNN’s Kevin Liptak, Evan Perez, Shania Shelton and Betsy Klein contributed to this report.
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect the date the law expanding protections for inspectors general was amended.