Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reportedly turned down now-former State department Inspector General Steve Linick’s request for an interview in his investigation into the Trump administration’s billion-dollar arms sale to Saudi Arabia.
According to the New York Times, Pompeo would only respond to Linick’s written questions.
The report contradicts Pompeo’s claim that he didn’t become aware of Linick’s investigation until right before the department watchdog was about to publish his findings in the probe.
Pompeo told the Washington Post on Tuesday that it was “not possible” Linick was fired in retaliation for “any investigation that was going on or is currently going on.”
“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,” the secretary of state said. “So it’s simply not possible for this to be an act of retaliation. End of story.”
President Donald Trump fired Linick last week at Pompeo’s recommendation but did not provide Congress a full explanation for the ouster, saying only that the inspector general had lost his full confidence.
Pompeo was similarly vague in his interview with the Post.
“I went to the President and made clear to him that Inspector General Linick wasn’t 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,” the secretary of state said. “The kinds of activities he’s supposed to undertake to make us better, to improve us.”
Shortly after Linick was fired, reports emerged revealing that the watchdog had been investigating Pompeo for both the Saudi arms sale in 2019 and for allegedly directing one of his staffers to run personal errands for him and his wife, such as walking the family dog.
I’m shocked, SHOCKED to learn that that lying occurs in the Trump administration!
Well, there’s a first time for everything.
And after that first time there’s a second time, and a third time, and a fourth time, and …
Pretty soon you’re talking real money.
“I am not a crook. Believe me, I am not a crook. End of story.”
This is really about the IG looking into Pompeo’s grifting. New reporting from NBC that he was spending $100k+ “6 figures” on taxpayer funded hidden dinners with major republican doners and media figures.
IG sent an inquiry, was promptly fired. Pompeo knew this was coming along with the investigation about using staff for personnel errands and tasks.
This is grifting on a whole new level. Trump will fire him within a month, as the heat gets hotter, and hotter.
Why? Republicans will turn on Pompeo as the theft is just too brazen, and Pompeo provides a change in subject from Trump claiming he is taking HCX with his sniffed adderal and his claims that having the highest death and infection counts is a “badge of honor” - a quote that everyone in America is going to hear 50 times between now and November. If you are collins, Tillis, Earnst, McShilly, Gardner, Purdue, Moscow Mitch, Cornyn, you have to be loyal to Trump, but you also need something to claim “I was draining the swamp” as you wallow in said swamp, and this will give them a scalp they can use to claim they are “independent”
Do you know of any American administration where so many of the key figures lied so constantly, about matters ‘great and and small’? There never has been: and never will be, an administration as corrupt as this one.