President Trump fired 17 inspectors general, the internal watchdog who monitors federal agencies, on Friday night, capping a week of dramatic shake-ups of the federal bureaucracy centered on loyalty to the president.
The sweeping move did not affect Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department’s inspector general, according to one of the people with knowledge of the matter. But inspectors general at several major agencies were thought to have been fired.
The Washington Post I mentioned the shooting previously. A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
The shootings threatened to upend the traditional independence of indoor entertainment, and Mr. Trump’s critics reacted with alarm.
“Inspectors general are accused of communicating government waste, fraud, abuse, and preventing misconduct,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said in a statement. “President Trump is blowing checks on his power and paving the way for widespread corruption.”
People involved in Trump’s transition have pointed out that such a disposal is disposable. It is in line with an effort that Mr. Trump began in early 2020, when he dismissed five inspectors general from their roles.
At the time, Mr. Trump was dealing with the coronavirus pandemic raging across the country, but he was also seeking to reshape the government to remove people he saw as trying to destroy him. This included Michael Atkinson, the inspector general of the US intelligence community, who handled the anonymous complaint that led to Mr Trump’s first debarment by the House of Representatives.
Democrats accused Mr. Trump of trying to gut independent offices.
Mr. Horowitz delivered to the Justice Department in late 2019 a report on the FBI investigation into possible links between his campaign and the Russians that began in 2016, called Crossfire Hurricane.
Mr. Horowitz found that the FBI had a valid basis to open the investigation, but was critical of requesting a warrant to secretly monitor Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page. He also said that the director of the FBI at the time of the opening of the investigation, James P. Comey, violated administration policy with secret memos about his interactions with Mr. Trump that later became public.
The Justice Department declined to prosecute Mr. Comey, a decision that angered Mr. Trump.
