The President Donald Trump’s Top advisers have discussed getting rid of independent watchdogs — known as inspectors general — at many federal agencies, sources familiar with the conversations told ABC News.
Talks began during Trump’s transition to the White House, but sources told ABC News it’s unclear if or when the moves will happen.
A decision on whether to fire the IGs hasn’t been made, and it’s unclear how many guards Trump wants to fire, the sources said.
The inspector general can be fired by the president, but only after giving both houses of Congress 30 days notice of the reason for the removal. In 2022, Congress strengthened and expanded protections for inspectors general, making it harder to replace them with handpicked officials and requiring more explanation from a president to remove them.
Although the heads of politically appointed agencies and departments come and go with each administration, an IG can report to multiple presidents.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
“Fundamentally, it would remove this critical component of oversight and it really leaves the American public vulnerable to corruption and abuse of power,” Faith Williams, director of the Effective Government and Accountability Program at the Watchdog Project on Government Oversight, told ABC. the news
Trump established political loyalties after that firing multiple inspectors general in his first term — which includes more than five weeks in 2020 — in a move criticized by lawmakers and administration officials who accused Trump of trying to erode federal government protections and independent oversight.
President Donald Trump asks a question from a reporter in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on January 21, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
In April 2020, Trump He fired Michael Atkinsonthe intelligence community’s inspector general, told reporters he had done a “tremendous job.”
Atkinson’s communications to Congress about the whistleblower’s allegations helped launch the Ukraine impeachment inquiry against Trump, leading to his first congressional impeachment. Trump was eventually acquitted by the Senate.
“I thought he did a terrible job, absolutely terrible. It was a false report that he took on a reporter, it was false, it was completely wrong. It was about my conversation with the president of Ukraine,” Trump said. “He took a fake report and brought it to Congress.”
Atkinson referred an intelligence official’s complaint to Congress, which centered on Trump’s phone call to Ukraine’s president asking him to investigate the Biden family’s ties to Ukraine. Democrats later impeached Trump for abusing his power in Ukraine’s efforts to investigate his political rival and for obstructing a congressional investigation into the affair.
Trump said he fired State Department inspector general Steve Linick driven by of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, whose office was investigating.
“I don’t know anything about him, the State Department, or Mike in particular, they weren’t happy with the job he was doing,” Trump said. “He asked me if that would be possible, and I said, ‘Sure, I’ll do that.'”
Earlier this year, President Joe Biden fired US Railroad Retirement Board Inspector General Martin Dickman following an investigation into alleged workplace harassment and abuse. the hill.
And President Barack Obama He fired Gerald WalpinGeneral inspector of the National Community Service Corporation, in 2009. Walpin followed his criticism of a Justice Department settlement with then-Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, accusing his investigators of using AmeriCorps volunteers as drivers and personal assistants. Johnson, a Democrat, campaigned for Obama.
Since 1978, inspectors general have been tasked with investigating waste, fraud and abuse in departments and agencies. Nearly half of the federal government’s 74 inspectors general are appointed by presidents to serve in nonpartisan roles.
According to the law, the auditor general must be hired “without regard to political affiliation and solely on the basis of integrity and demonstrated ability in accounting, auditing, financial analysis, law, management analysis, public administration or research.”
There are currently nearly a dozen inspector general vacancies for Trump to fill, including at the Treasury and Commerce departments and the National Security Agency.
The inspector general of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence resigned late last year, allowing Trump to name his picks to lead oversight of the powerful national security agency.
Although an inspector general does not have prosecutorial powers, IGs can identify possible criminal conduct and refer it for prosecution.
In 2021, the State Department IG determined that Pompeo and his wife broke ethics rules by asking employees to do personal favors. Pompeo defended his actions, arguing that a “friend” who had been a longtime aide was asked to do “small, easy” tasks.
In the past, Trump has defended the president’s authority to fire inspector generals, but the move could cause a political backlash.
On his first day in office, President Ronald Reagan fired a dozen inspectors general, which Republicans and Democrats accused of politicizing their roles. The New York Times.
The outcry prompted Reagan to hire some of the ousted caretakers back into their roles, Williams of the Government Oversight Project told ABC News.
“I would expect there to be an outcry now” if Trump were to take action, Williams said. “One of the roles of Congress is oversight, and one of the ways to do that is to work with the inspector general community.”
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, a longtime advocate of inspectors general, told ABC News that IGs are “very important” to protect the work of Congress as a check on the executive branch.
“The inspector general is expected to be independent from political pressure, to be independent of the head of the agency, and to make sure that the law is followed and the money is spent properly,” he said.
Trump’s first transition team also considered removing the inspector general: In 2017, the House Oversight Committee received an email from the internal transition team with instructions to notify the IGs that they were being “temporarily placed on hold.”
As president, Trump has repeatedly complained about inspectors general and their work, once calling it “crazy” that the Pentagon’s IG report was publicly released.
“Giving these reports to the enemy, basically, forget about the public, is insane. And I don’t want it to happen again, Mr. Secretary. You understand that,” he said. Patrick Shanahan told his then-Secretary of Defense at a January 2019 Cabinet meeting.
ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.
