Washington (AFP) – US lawmakers plan to question a State Department watchdog fired on the advice of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as they probe whether the dismissal was illegal, congressional sources said Tuesday.
Senators and House members from both political parties have been invited to interview ousted inspector general Steve Linick on Wednesday, said an aide working on the investigation.
Lawmakers will later release a transcript to the public of the session, which will take place virtually due to coronavirus precautions, the aide said.
President Donald Trump abruptly fired Linick late on May 15 on the recommendation of Pompeo, who said he did not have to offer a reason.
Lawmakers said that the firing may have been an illegal act of retribution as Linick had opened a probe into Pompeo.
Congressional aides earlier said that Linick was looking into allegations that Pompeo asked staff to perform personal errands such as walking his dog.
Representative Eliot Engel, a Democrat who heads the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Linick was also reviewing a declaration of emergency that let Pompeo bypass congressional opponents to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia.
Pompeo has dismissed the allegations as “crazy, crazy stuff,” without going into specifics, and lawmakers say he has not cooperated with the probe.
Pompeo — who has championed a hawkish foreign policy, especially on China and Iran — is one of the most stalwart aides of Trump.
The top US diplomat on Monday missed a deadline to register to run for Senate in his state of Kansas, confirming definitively that he has rejected appeals within his Republican Party to seek a seat that looks unusually vulnerable.
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