President Donald Trump has moved to fire the watchdog overseeing the State Department. The elimination of the agency’s inspector general will be effective in 30 days, per a letter from the White House. Steve Linick, the State Department’s inspector general since 2013, is the latest in a long line of independent government overseers Trump has ousted, including Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson last month. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called the move an “unlawful act of retaliation,” saying he just learned that Linick’s office had recently opened an investigation into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.Linick was looking into allegations that Pompeo misused a political appointee to perform personal tasks for him and his wife, a Democratic aide told The Daily Beast. Stephen Akard, head of the State Department’s Office of Foreign Missions and a confidant of Vice President Mike Pence, will replace Linick.
