Trump sacked State Department Inspector General Steve Linick late on Friday in his latest abrupt dismissal of an official tasked with monitoring wrongdoing inside a government agency.
WASHINGTON – A government watchdog fired suddenly by Donald Trump was investigating Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, said a Democratic lawmaker who accused the president of committing a potentially illegal act of retribution.
A Democratic congressional aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Linick was probing complaints that Pompeo misused a political appointee to perform personal tasks for himself and his wife. The State Department confirmed Linick's firing but did not comment on the reason or on whether Pompeo was under investigation.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Linick was "punished for honorably performing his duty to protect the Constitution and our national security." Pompeo, 56, is widely seen as entertaining presidential ambitions of his own. But he has frustrated some Republican colleagues who want him to quit and return to his state of Kansas to run in November for a Senate seat that is looking surprisingly vulnerable for the party.
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