Former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis offered praise for the acting Pentagon inspector general, who was charged with overseeing the coronavirus stimulus, that President Trump fired.
Mattis, who was the secretary from 2017 until his resignation in 2019, offered praise for Glenn Fine in a Tuesday statement to Yahoo News.
“Mr. Fine is a public servant in the finest tradition of honest, competent governance,” Mattis said. “In my years of extensive engagement with him as our Department of Defense’s acting Inspector General, he proved to be a leader whose personal and managerial integrity were always of the highest order.”
Fine was acting inspector general at the Pentagon since 2016 before being ousted by Trump. He will now be the principal deputy inspector general for the Pentagon, the position he held prior to his role as acting inspector general. Sean O’Donnell, the Environmental Protection Agency inspector general, is set to replace Fine.
Fine, in his previous role at the Pentagon, was poised to become the chairman of the new Pandemic Response Accountability Committee designed to oversee how the government carries out the $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package.
Trump’s decision comes the same week that he fired Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community inspector general. The president said he “no longer” had confidence in Atkinson, who handled the whistleblower complaint that sparked Trump’s impeachment. In the aftermath, Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department inspector general, defended Atkinson.
Republican Maine Sen. Susan Collins also criticized Trump’s decision to remove Atkinson, calling it “not warranted.”
