President Trump is continuing to clean house. Last night, State Department Inspector General Steve Linick was relieved of his duties and told to go find something else to do. He’s one of several IGs fired over the last few months, to which the response has been predictable.
Democrats are already spinning this as some kind of retaliation and cover-up. Here’s how The Washington Post covered the story.
State Department inspector general fired as Democrats decry "dangerous pattern of retaliation" https://t.co/3AipwBEqBl
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 16, 2020
It appears the only retaliation being insinuated here is that this guy was an Obama appointee. To that, I say good for Trump. One of the worst mistakes of his presidency, though perhaps not realistic to do at the time, was not firing every senior official appointed by the previous administration. For years, we’ve seen bureaucrats put in positions of power by Obama abuse their power and chase rabbits in order to try to “get” Trump. Firing them is absolutely the right move.
Recall that Linick was one of the IGs who went to Adam Schiff last year in an attempt to help push the impeachment farce. The information he had turned out to be completely irrelevant. It did feed the news cycle for a few days though, which was likely the point. On its own, acting in such a political manner to propagate a partisan narrative is an offense worthy of firing.
But in this case, there may be even more to the story. It looks as though Linick was actually fired for cause, as he was under investigation for mishandling classified information.
Two sources familiar with Linick’s ouster told the DCNF that while they were not certain of the precise reason that the watchdog was fired, he was under investigation last year by the Department of Defense’s inspector general for mishandling sensitive material.
Is that just a pretense to get rid of this guy? Frankly, I couldn’t care less. Linick was a partisan hack who, upon finding out he was under investigation, tried to then investigate Mike Pompeo to protect himself. All of this is par for the course with many of these Obama appointees and Trump is under no obligation to let it continue.
Good riddance. This guy was the Peter Strzok of the State Department.
State Department watchdog ousted https://t.co/7X43iA2zTD via
— Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) May 16, 2020
Let the media and Democrats (but I repeat myself) cry. Trump should continue to drop the hammer on these people. There’s absolutely nothing to lose at this point.
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