US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi took aim at President Donald Trump for his dismissal of State Department Inspector General Steve Linick, calling the move part of a "dangerous pattern of retaliation
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th May, 2020) US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi took aim at President Donald Trump for his dismissal of State Department Inspector General Steve Linick, calling the move part of a "dangerous pattern of retaliation."
According to Politico news outlet, Trump fired Linick in a letter sent to Congress late on Friday saying he no longer had "fullest confidence" in the high-ranking official, who had headed the oversight office of Washington's diplomatic arm since his appointment in 2013 by President Barack Obama.
"The President's late-night, weekend firing of the State Department Inspector General has accelerated his dangerous pattern of retaliation against the patriotic public servants charged with conducting oversight on behalf of the American people," Pelosi said in the statement, adding that Linick was fired despite "honorably performing his duty."
Linick's firing, which has become the latest in a series of oversight removals by Trump, is seen as an attempt to halt an investigation into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for allegedly using department aides for personal tasks, Politico reported.
According to the news outlet, Congressman Eliot L. Engel, who chairs the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, called Linick's dismissal an "outrageous act of a president trying to protect one of his most loyal supporters, the secretary of State, from accountability."
As acting head of the inspector general's office, Trump proposed Stephen Akard who currently heads the Office of Foreign Relations and was part of Indiana governor's administration under current Vice President Mike Pence.
