Pompeo Denies Firing of IG Was Political Retaliation, Claims He Wasn’t Aware of Investigation

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has now responded to the firing of State Department IG Steve Linick, confirming that he spoke with President Donald Trump about firing him but denying it was an act of political retaliation.

Multiple reports have come out saying that Linick was investigating Pompeo himself over — per NBC News — “whether Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a staffer walk his dog, pick up his dry cleaning and make dinner reservations for Pompeo and his wife, among other personal errands, according to two congressional officials assigned to different committees.”

Linick was also reportedly looking at the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia and, as Politico reports, “A congressional aide said State Department officials were recently briefed about Linick’s conclusions in his investigation of the Saudi arms sales, and that Pompeo refused to sit for an interview with the inspector general’s office.”

Pompeo spoke Monday to Washington Post correspondent Carol Morello and accused Linick of not “performing a function in a way that we had tried to get him to, that was additive for the State Department, very consistent with what the statute says he’s supposed to be doing.”

“Just like every presidentially confirmed position, I can terminate them. They serve at his pleasure for any reason or no reason,” he said.

Pompeo claimed that he was not aware of an investigation:

“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,” he 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.

“So it’s simply not possible for this to be an act of retaliation. End of story.”

When asked about the allegations of government employees running personal errands, Pompeo just said, “I’m not going to answer the host of unsubstantiated allegations about any of that.”

You can read the full report here.

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