Trump fired the inspector general of the State Department, Steve Linick. In accordance with the 2008 Inspector General Reform Act, which protects inspectors general from being fired without cause, Trump informed Congress in writing about the intent to fire Linick, expressing that he no longer had the “fullest confidence” in Linick, who was appointed to that position in 2013 by Barack Obama.
Democrats naturally have come out of the woodwork to express their faux outrage, and to launch an investigation into the firing over allegations that Trump acted to protect Pompeo.
But where were these Democrats in 2009 when Barack Obama fired the inspector general of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), Gerald Walpin?
Gerald Walpin was in the middle of an investigation when he was called by White House counsel Norman Eisen, who informed him that he had an hour to resign or be fired. This was in violation of the Reform Act, which Obama co-sponsored as a U.S. senator. Walpin refused.
After Walpin’s refusal, Obama wrote a letter to Congress, giving the following explanation: “It is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as Inspectors General. That is no longer the case with regard to this Inspector General.”
Gerald Walpin had been investigating Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA basketball star and Obama supporter, for misusing federal grant money from AmeriCorps.
He found that Johnson gave $850,000 of AmeriCorps grant money to a nonprofit organization he founded called St. HOPE Academy. In addition to being improperly used to pay AmeriCorps volunteers for political activity, to wash his car, and to run his personal errands, Walpin also discovered that Johnson had used AmeriCorps grant money to pay hush money to underage girls, who were students at St. HOPE Academy, that he had sexually assaulted and then staged a cover-up.
Obama broke the law to protect a donor and ally who had misused federal grant money and sexually abused three underage girls, then he and his appointees misled and stonewalled Congress in an attempt to cover up his own illegal behavior. Where were the Democrats then?
h/t CrsCrpr