UPDATE: Trump Reportedly Fires State Department Inspector General, Who Was Investigating Sec’y of State Mike Pompeo

Steve Linick, the inspector general at the State Department, has reportedly been fired from his position.

Politico broke news tonight that Steve Linick — who has served in the position since 2013 — has been ousted:

A State Department spokesperson said that Amb. Stephen Akard, a former career Foreign Service officer, “will now lead the Office of the Inspector General at the State Department,” noting that Akard was previously confirmed by the Senate as head of the department’s Office of Foreign Missions.

If Linick’s name sounds familiar to you, it may be from one odd moment during the Ukraine saga. As Politico reported at the time:

The State Department’s inspector general briefed congressional aides Wednesday about an apparent attempt to smear the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, who is seen by House Democrats as a key witness in their impeachment inquiry.

Sources who attended the closed-door briefing — deemed “urgent” when it was announced on Tuesday — described it as bizarre and confusing. Steve Linick, the inspector general, revealed that a packet of documents containing misinformation about the former ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch, was sent to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earlier this year from an unknown source. Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, was also a target of debunked conspiracy theories laid out in the documents, lawmakers and aides said.

Just minutes after the announcement of Linick’s dismissal, Rep. Eliot Engel, Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released a statement that he had learned Linick had just opened up an investigation of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

“Mr. Linick’s firing amid such a probe strongly suggests that this is an unlawful act of retaliation,” Engel said in a statement. “This President believes he is above the law. As he systematically removes the official independent watchdogs from the Executive Branch, the work of the Committee on Foreign Affairs becomes that much more critical. In the days ahead, I will be looking into this matter in greater detail, and I will press the State Department for answers.”

This story is developing, and has been updated.