State Department Inspector General Steve Linick in Washington last year. President Trump fired Mr. Linick on Friday.
Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/Associated PressWASHINGTON—President Trump on Friday fired the State Department’s inspector general, in the most recent action by the White House to remove officials who serve as independent watchdogs in agencies across the government.
In a letter to congressional officials, Mr. Trump said he was removing the department’s inspector general in 30 days because he no longer had confidence in him. Inspector General Steve Linick wasn’t named in Mr. Trump’s letter, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Democratic leaders condemned the decision to fire Mr. Linick, originally appointed by former President Obama in 2013, and charged the action was taken to shield Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from possible criticism from the inspector general’s office, which has issued reports critical of the State Department’s administration in the past.
Rep. Eliot Engel (D, N.Y.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called the move an “outrageous act of a president trying to protect one of his most loyal supporters,” Mr. Pompeo.
“I have learned that the Office of the Inspector General had opened an investigation into Secretary Pompeo,” Mr. Engel said. “Mr. Linick’s firing amid such a probe strongly suggests that this is an unlawful act of retaliation.“
According to a Democratic aide, the State Department Office of Inspector General had been looking into allegations that Mr. Pompeo misused a political appointee at the agency to perform personal tasks for himself and his wife.
State department officials didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on the investigation, the allegations, or Mr. Linick’s status.
Representatives for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) and Rep. Michael McCaul (R., Texas), the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Linick’s office last year was critical of State Department management practices, charging in a report that high-ranking department officials berated career employees over their political views, questioning their loyalty and retaliating against some of them.
The report described “leadership and management deficiencies” by some top officials.
Mr. Linick also had issued reports critical of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and has drawn scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers for doing so. An inspector general’s office report during Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016 faulted her use of a private email server and her record-keeping, saying some of those practices violated the department’s policies. Mrs. Clinton responded that her use of the private server was permitted at the time.
Mr. Linick’s spokesman said at the time that his office “operates as an independent organization, consistent with the law.”
Mr. Trump’s decision to fire Mr. Linick drew quick criticism from other Democratic leaders. “The president’s late-night, weekend firing of the State Department Inspector General has accelerated his dangerous pattern of retaliation against the patriotic public servants charged with conducting oversight on behalf of the American people,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.
The move Friday came amid a series of similar moves by Mr. Trump. Last month, he replaced the Pentagon’s acting inspector general, Glenn Fine, who had been charged with heading a team monitoring the roughly $2 trillion pandemic stimulus law, days after firing Michael Atkinson, the inspector general of the intelligence community.
Write to Lindsay Wise at lindsay.wise@wsj.com
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