According to a Democratic MP, Donald Trump has fired an internal State Department investigator who is currently investigating a department head Mike Pompeo had started. The State Department confirmed the release of Inspector General Steve Linick late Friday evening (local time). The latter opened an investigation against Pompeo as an internal investigator, explained the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Eliot Engel.
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With Linick’s release Trump Protect “one of his most loyal supporters,” criticized Engel. He made no statement about what allegations against Pompeo could be.
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The Politico news portal and the CNN broadcaster reported that the Republican Trump had informed the head of the House of Representatives, the democrat Nancy Pelosi, about the personnel. Pelosi subsequently accused Trump of punishing Linick for protecting the constitution and national security. Politico reported that Linick should be replaced by a confidante from Vice President Mike Pence.
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Pelosi criticized the fact that the release, announced in the middle of the night, was in a dangerous pattern of retaliation against officials who did their oversight of the authorities. According to CNN, Linick played a – relatively small – role in the impeachment proceedings against Trump. The House of Representatives, dominated by the Democrats, had accused Trump of having urged the Ukrainian government to investigate his democratic rival Joe Biden. In February, Trump was acquitted of the majority of his Republicans in the U.S. Senate during the trial.
Trump had fired Inspector General of Intelligence Michael Atkinson last month. Atkinson played a key role in getting the Ukraine affair rolling, which led to the impeachment process. After Trump’s acquittal, a National Security Council expert in the White House, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, and US Ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland, were also released from their duties. Both had testified against the president in Congress after being summoned to pay a fine.
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