U.S. President Donald Trump has fired the State Department’s inspector general, saying in a letter last Friday night to Congress that he no longer had confidence in the Obama administration appointee — the latest senior U.S. official involved in the impeachment probe into Trump to be forced out by his administration.

The president’s letter did not mention Steve Linick by name but said his removal would take effect in 30 days.

Trump told U.S. media in the White House on Monday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asked him to fire Linick, of whom the president said had never heard.

“I don’t know him at all, I never even heard of him, but I was asked to by the State Department, by Mike,” Trump told reporters. “He is an Obama employee ... they ask me to terminate him, I have the absolute right as president to terminate,” Trump said, adding that the removal should have been done a long time ago.

The State Department watchdog was reportedly investigating if Pompeo had asked a staffer to run personal errands for him or his administration’s decision to expedite arms sales to Saudi Arabia by declaring an emergency last year.

In an interview with The Washington Post earlier Monday, Pompeo said that he asked Trump to fire Linick, but he noted that he was unaware of Linick’s ongoing investigation on him.

“It is not possible that this decision, or my recommendation rather, to the president rather, was based on any effort to retaliate for any investigation that was going on or is currently going on,” Pompeo said. “Because I simply don’t know. I’m not briefed on it. I usually see these investigations in final draft form 24 hours, 48 hours before the IG is prepared to release them.”

Appointed to the role in 2013 by President Barack Obama, Linick, a career government lawyer who served as a senior Justice Department official under President George W. Bush and assistant U.S. attorney in California and Virginia under President Bill Clinton, had overseen reports that were highly critical of the State Department’s management policies since Trump took office.

His office had also criticized several Trump appointees for their treatment of career staff for allegedly being insufficiently supportive of Trump and his policies.

Last October, Linick hosted a closed-door briefing on Ukraine for aides from several congressional committees. The briefing examined communications between Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and fired Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin and current Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko. Linick also shared news clips and information regarding Ukrainian energy company Burisma,

The conversations between Giuliani and the Ukrainians were in reference to reports that former Vice President Joe Biden had sought to have Shokin fired amid an investigation into Burisma, whose board members included Hunter Biden, son of the former vice president.

Trump’s July 2019 request that Ukraine’s president investigate the Biden matter led House Democrats to impeach the president last December on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The Senate acquitted Trump in February.

Democrats in Congress, meanwhile, objected to the president’s move.

The inspector general, who acts as an independent watchdog responsible for investigating the agency, was investigating Pompeo’s decision to greenlight arms sales to Saudi Arabia, despite bipartisan congressional opposition to doing so.

Lawmakers from both parties have maintained there was no legitimate emergency to justify sidestepping Congress by authorizing the arms sale, arguing that it’s unclear how the weapons could even help Saudi Arabia defend itself against Iran, which has long preferred asymmetric warfare and use of proxy groups to actual military-to-military conflict with its enemies.

Linick was also investigating whether Pompeo made the political appointee walk his dog and make dinner reservations for him and his wife, among other personal errands. Routine ethics briefings for State Department officials include the admonition that they may not enlist people who report directly to them to perform personal errands, a current and a former State Department official said. Federal regulations also say an employee “shall not encourage, direct, coerce, or request a subordinate to use official time to perform activities other than those required in the performance of official duties or authorized in accordance with law or regulation.”

Linick’s firing has prompted bipartisan concern on Capitol Hill. U.S. bipartisan lawmakers Monday urged Trump to provide a more detailed explanation for his decision to fire Linick.

“The removal is part of a pattern of undermining the integrity” of the IGs and the U.S. Government, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said in a letter to Trump, calling for “detailed and substantial justification” for the decision.

“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,” Pelosi said in a statement released Friday evening. “Inspector General Linick was punished for honorably performing his duty to protect the Constitution and our national security, as required by the law and by his oath.”

“The president must cease his pattern of reprisal and retaliation against the public servants who are working to keep Americans safe, particularly during this time of global emergency,” she said.

Senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, made a similar request Monday, citing a U.S. law that requires the White House to provide Congress with a written explanation at least 30 days prior to removing an IG.

“IGs are intended to be equal opportunity investigators and are designed to combat waste, fraud, abuse, and misconduct without regard to political affiliation,” Grassley wrote. “Removal of IGs without explanation could create a chilling effect in the oversight community, and risks decreasing the quantity, quality, fidelity, and veracity of their reports.”

The senator asked the White House to produce a detailed reasoning for the removal of Linick no later than June 1.

Last year, Linick led an investigation into the Trump administration’s alleged mistreatment of employees by the department’s political appointees at the Bureau of International Organizations and the Office of the Secretary. He submitted his report to Congress and testified before them in July.

Linick and his office concluded after an 18-month probe that Kevin Moley, the assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs, and senior adviser Mari Stull had engaged in “inappropriate practices,” including the “disrespectful and hostile treatment of employees … and harassment of career employees premised on claims that they were ‘disloyal’ based on their perceived political views.” Linick recommended “corrective action” for Stull as well as unspecified disciplinary action against Moley.

In 2016, Linick was in charge of the Inspector General probe and report into the infamous Hillary Clinton email case.

The report was separate from the FBI investigation into whether or not Clinton was involved in criminal wrongdoing for her use of a private email server.

In the report, Linick concluded that using her personal email for State Department business was not “appropriate.” He leveled two significant criticisms at Clinton for her method of record retention and potential security risk in transmitting classified information via her personal email address.

Linick was also the first Inspector General of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and served in the role from 2010 to 2013.

He wasted no time going after Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac after assuming office. Right after taking office he told both agencies that he wouldn’t be an ordinary regulator. He pledged to thoroughly investigate their operations and actions in order to ensure taxpayer money was being spent responsibly.

Linick first investigated the salaries of Fannie and Freddie executives who made a total of US$36 million in 2009.

His office found that many of the mortgage abuses could have been prevented if Freddie and Fannie had implemented an adequate risk program.

He filed a separate report that Bank of America shortchanged taxpayers billions of dollars by selling shoddy mortgages to Freddie Mac.

(SD-Agencies)