Stephen Akard, the acting inspector general at the State Department installed after President Donald Trump fired his predecessor, is resigning this week after less than three months on the job.
A State Department official told TPM that he is returning to the private sector. Deputy Inspector General Diana Shaw will take over the acting Inspector General role, the official added.
Akard is still listed as the director on the Office of Foreign Missions website, a job he kept while also accepting the acting IG role. House Democrats took issue with that arrangement at the time, writing in a May letter that it will “chill whistleblower disclosures” to have the acting inspector general report to Pompeo in another job.
Akard, who had once worked for Vice President Mike Pence, was forced to recuse himself from ongoing probes touching on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his wife, Susan, after outcry from Democrats.
Trump fired Akard’s predecessor, Steve Linick, who was leading an investigation into an emergency declaration made to allow the administration to fast-track a massive arms deal with Saudi Arabia. Pompeo admitted that he had submitted written answers to Linick’s questions about that probe. Per CNN, the State Department and office of the inspector general are in their final negotiations over the report before its release.
On Monday, congressional Democrats sent out a slew of subpoenas to State Department officials to force their testimony on Linick’s firing. Akard was not subpoenaed.
Pompeo abruptly postponed a press availability scheduled for late Wednesday morning after the news of Akard’s departure broke.
Why does this feel like Nixon? ANY oversight of Donald J. Trump that he doesn’t ‘like’ means we are replacing yet ANOTHER IG…or an official that surrounds Donnie. C’mon November!
When he had to recuse on the big cases, he was of no use to Pompeo. (Because as we all know the purpose of an IG is to work for the political appointee at the top.)
Oh, don’t worry about oversight. The Republicans will be all for it, even demanding it, come January 2021.
I’ll leave to you to figure out why.
Let’s back up a second. First, what requires that an agency have an IG? Is there legislation on that? What is an IG’s charge? Then let’s see how that applies to the current situation.
I’m confused. I thought the State Department now was the private sector. You know, Department of Swagger™?