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US Lawmakers Clash Over State Department Oversight

Katherine Gypson

   WASHINGTON - Top State Department aides Wednesday defended President
   Donald Trump's firing of State Department Inspector General (IG) Steve
   Linick earlier this year, telling lawmakers the decision was within the
   White House's executive authority.

   "The IG's removal was not about retaliation on any specific report or
   investigation," Brian Bulatao, State Department undersecretary of
   management, told lawmakers.

   But congressional Democrats allege Linick's firing was connected to two
   investigations his office was conducting into Secretary of State Mike
   Pompeo's conduct.

   The first investigation involved Pompeo's emergency declaration that
   allowed the Trump administration to circumvent the U.S. Congress to
   approve $8 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Congressional
   Democrats expressed concern the arms would be used against civilians in
   the war in Yemen.

   "Many of us here in Congress saw the situation on the ground in Yemen
   and said, 'Enough.' We thought that before we shipped instruments of
   death overseas, adequate precautions should be in place to ensure those
   instruments would not be used to blow up school buses or funeral
   processions. We did not want the United States to be party to the
   slaughter of innocents," House Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel
   said during a hearing on the matter.

   The IG's report found Pompeo's emergency declaration did "not fully
   assess risks and implement mitigation measures to reduce civilian
   casualties and legal concerns associated with the transfer of PGMs
   (precision guided munitions) included in the Secretary's May 2019
   emergency certification."

   Last week, Engel released internal documents from July that showed
   State Department officials asked the IG's office to remove passages of
   the report expressing concerns about civilian casualties.

   Pompeo was also facing ethics concerns related to dinner parties he and
   his wife held at his home that he has said were related to his work at
   the State Department. Congressional Democrats noted that State
   Department officials were not present at the gatherings, saying the
   guest list appears related to the Secretary of State's domestic
   political ambitions.

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