- Steve Linick, the State Department inspector general who was fired on Friday, was investigating whether Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a staffer walk his dog and pick up his dry cleaning, according to a report by NBC News.
- A Democratic aide told CNN that Pompeo made a staffer run a “variety of personal errands.”
- A White House official told NBC News on Friday that Pompeo “recommended” that Linick be removed from his position.
- Two top Democrats in Congress announced on Saturday that they will investigate the circumstances of Linick’s firing.
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Steve Linick, the State Department inspector general who was fired on Friday, was reportedly investigating whether Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a staffer walk his dog and pick up his dry cleaning.
Two congressional officials told NBC News on Sunday that they are working to determine whether Linick was conducting additional investigations into Pompeo’s conduct. A Democratic aide told CNN that Pompeo made a staffer run a “variety of personal errands.”
Representatives for the State Department did not immediately respond to Business Insider for comment.
A White House official told NBC News on Friday that Pompeo “recommended” that Linick be removed from his position.
In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday announcing the firing, President Donald Trump said he “no longer” had full confidence in Linick.
“As is the case with regard to other positions where I, as President, have the power of appointment, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, it is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as Inspectors General. That is no longer the case with regard to this Inspector General,” Trump wrote in the letter, according to NBC News.
Linick is the fourth inspector general removed by Trump since April, which comes after ousting these top officials charged with investigating waste and abuse of power for the Defense Department, Department of Health and Human Services and the Intelligence Community.
Pelosi said in a statement on Friday night Linick’s firing “has accelerated [Trump’s] dangerous pattern of retaliation against the patriotic public servants charged with conducting oversight on behalf of the American people.”
“Inspector General Linick was punished for honorably performing his duty to protect the Constitution and our national security, as required by the law and by his oath,” she said.
Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Rep. Eliot Engel and New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, a ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sent a joint letter to the White House on Saturday demanding it forward all records related to Linick’s ousting to Congress by May 22.
“President Trump’s unprecedented removal of Inspector General Linick is only his latest sacking of an inspector general, our government’s key independent watchdogs, from a federal agency,” the letter said.
In a statement on Friday evening, Engel said he believed Linick’s firing was an “unlawful act of retaliation.”
“This firing is the outrageous act of a president trying to protect one of his most loyal supporters, the Secretary of State, from accountability,” Engel said. “This president believes he is above the law.