On the first Friday night of his second term, Donald Trump took an indefensible step: The president fired at least 18 inspectors general who were responsible for rooting out corruption, ethical lapses and mismanagement in federal agencies throughout the government. The Republican didn’t appear to have the legal authority to take such steps, but he did it anyway.
Nine months later, Trump’s purge against inspectors general is still ongoing. The New York Times reported:
Parisa Salehi was the kind of internal watchdog who had earned a strong reputation for digging up fraud, waste and abuse during her 15 years in government service. She had risen through the ranks at inspectors general offices at the State Department and U.S.A.I.D., eventually taking over internal investigations at the Export-Import Bank of the United States, where her office reported saving tens of millions of dollars. But last week, she got a notice that President Trump had fired her, effective immediately.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, who has traditionally taken these offices seriously, posted an item to social media a few days ago noting that the White House was legally required to notify Congress about Salehi’s ouster — a requirement that Trump and his team apparently decided to ignore.
It’s unclear whether the Iowa Republican intends to do anything about this — recent history suggests Grassley won’t follow through with anything more than some social media posts — but the senator appears to be correct about the process the president is flouting.
Making matters even worse is the larger pattern. Not only has Trump fired roughly two dozen inspectors general so far this year, but the White House has also defunded the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, the umbrella organization for 72 inspectors general across the federal government, despite the fact that Congress had already agreed to fund the office.
There’s no great mystery about the motivation behind the broader campaign: Inspectors general exist to ensure that federal agencies abide by applicable laws and institutional rules (among other reasons). The White House often likes to ignore applicable laws and institutional rules, so Trump and his team tend to see inspectors general as annoying hindrances in need of removal. It’s why the president has fired so many of these inspectors general, why he has left so many inspectors general offices vacant throughout the federal government, and in some instances, even why he has nominated controversial loyalists to serve in some key offices. There are still some inspectors general doing their jobs, but given recent events, they no doubt realize that their careers are subject to the whims of a president who has already fired many of their peers without cause. The result is a system of inspectors general that is now effectively broken, which necessarily opens the door to more corruption, more mismanagement, more ethical lapses and more departments acting outside of legal limits.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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