During the news dump late Friday night, President Donald Trump dismissed Inspector General of the US State Department, Steve Linick, without the required 30-day notice to Congress and replaced him with Ambassador Stephen Akard, director of the Department of State’s overseas missions.
Linick is the third Inspector General Trump has fired under the guise of the coronavirus epidemic since April and the third to have made an oversight that would have questioned and reviewed Trump’s power. While Trump will announce his official candidate to replace Linick in the coming days, his current replacement is generally considered unqualified for the last job Trump nominated him for.
Akard was once the senior external advisor to then Indiana Governor Mike Pence. But Akard is perhaps best known on Capitol Hill as Trump’s failed candidate for General Manager of the Foreign Service in October 2017.
At the time, anonymous foreign ministry officials referred to Akard as a “political peasant” and a “yes man” because Akard had only served eight years overseas service from 1997 to 2005, when the position was usually given to highly respected ambassadors with decades of overseas office experience. This is because the role is “to lead the human resources department, conduct training and promotions, advise the secretary on management and personnel, and resolve difficult internal conflicts and problems with US ambassadors and diplomats abroad.”
After officials and lawmakers criticized his lack of experience and previous work under Pence, Akard withdrew his nomination in March 2018, but he’s now back and as a temporary commissioner he doesn’t need any scrutiny or approval from Congress.
Even more worrying, Linick’s dismissal appears to be following a pattern of getting rid of guard dogs that have criticized the Trump administration. Linkick was reportedly investigating Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeos “abuse of a political officer in the department to do personal chores for himself and Ms. Pompeo” when he was fired – in fact, CNN correspondent Manu Raju said Pompeo actually made the call to Linick to fire. During Trump’s impeachment trial in January 2020, Linick gave members of the House of Representatives documents that the President’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, had given the State Department.
In mid-April, Trump fired Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson after handling a 2019 whistleblower complaint alleging the president was trying to blackmail Ukraine for a corruption investigation against the alleged Democratic presidential candidate, the former vice president Mike Pence to initiate.
In early April, Trump removed incumbent Pentagon Inspector General Glenn Fine, who was supposed to oversee the president’s administration of a $ 2 trillion coronavirus relief fund for American businesses.
“The president’s weekend nightly sacking of the inspector general of the State Department has hastened his dangerous pattern of retaliation against the patriotic officials charged with overseeing the American people,” wrote Nancy Pelosi, spokeswoman for the California Democratic House, in one Declaration issued Friday night.
The slow elimination of oversight continues within the tRump regime. IG Steve Linick is replaced by Pence’s ally Stephen Ackard.
👉🏼 No mistake
👉🏼 Loyalty rules only
https://t.co/GAvoifE5Yk
– Mara * Stay at home * Jade @ 🇵🇷 🏳️🌈 (@ MaraJade_2017) May 16, 2020
A senior state official confirmed that Pompeo made the recommendation to remove Linick, but the official did not know why. The decision to choose Akard as his successor was made in consultation with his management team, but Pompeo ultimately made the decision https://t.co/cQtjULjLN1
– Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 16, 2020
The administration always does the things they are most proud of late Friday night, such as firing the State Department’s respected internal watchdog https://t.co/i7pXvlpUWq
– Robbie Gramer (@RobbieGramer) May 16, 2020
Completely legal. Absolutely normal. Total cool. There is nothing to see here at all! This is how all strong democracies work!
“The new Inspector General will be Stephen Akard, a former advisor to Vice President Mike Pence” https://t.co/3Wu85PsZbZ
– Brad Bowman (@beeradb) May 16, 2020
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