As President Trump ramps up his war against federal agency inspectors general, alarm bells ought to sound across the ideological spectrum.
Trump is hobbling one of the most important means of fighting government waste and corruption. He is abusing what are supposed to be apolitical offices by turning them into lap-dog dens servile to him in ways that will enable rather than restrain presidential misconduct.
In the past five days alone, Trump has fired one inspector general, demoted another who was highly regarded, and publicly and rather viciously castigated a third who was reporting on hospital shortages. Trump has taken these actions without any apparent foundation. Reports Tuesday night say these moves are just the beginning of a planned purge of at least seven inspectors general (a number apparently confirmed unintentionally by Trump himself) with even “more changes” possible “later.”
In doing all this, Trump is unambiguously violating the spirit, although perhaps not the precise letter, of the laws that created these key watchdog offices. The 2008 Inspector General Reform Act requires that if a president jettisons one of these officials, he “shall communicate in writing the reasons for any such removal or transfer to both Houses of Congress.” The Senate report language attached to the act explains: “The requirement to notify the Congress in advance of the reasons for the removal should serve to ensure that Inspectors General are not removed for political reasons.”
Granted, report language does not carry the force of law, but it does accurately explain the law’s intent. Trump has offered no specific cause for his dismissals other than that those dismissed “no longer” inspire his “fullest confidence.” His aims are manifestly political.
This is important. Inspectors general are not intended to be and historically have not been treated as political appointees to be replaced by each new president. They generally serve across administrations of both parties. For example, the inspector general for the Internal Revenue Service, Russell George, has served in that post since 2004. Never before have they been dismissed en masse the way Trump apparently is doing now. Yes, Trump does have that power, but it is a power he is abusing.
Former President Barack Obama mistreated inspectors general too — although even he only fired one and forced out another. Instead, he hindered their ability to conduct investigations, drawing a public rebuke from 47 of the 78 inspector generals then in office. In each case, the firings and the hindrances, conservative media and politicians loudly denounced Obama for covering up waste and probably corruption. Their silence now is embarrassing.
As the Washington Examiner wrote in an editorial back then, Obama’s bullying of inspectors general “encourages even more wrongdoing.” Trump’s bullying is, if anything, even worse because it is obviously being exercised as retribution for officials performing their jobs rather than just putting hurdles in the way of those jobs. And yes, what Trump is doing is encouraging and excusing more wrongdoing — perhaps including his own.
In some senses, colloquially speaking if not in legal terms, what Trump is doing is obstructing justice or at least obstructing oversight that could either expose corruption or highlight waste — or, frighteningly, identify deadly snafus in the delivery systems for lifesaving medicines or other supplies as we deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump’s mistreatment of the inspectors general is unconscionable. Let us pray it isn’t also lethal for large numbers of innocent people.
