Government watchdogs fired by Trump sue his administration, seek reinstatement

Eight government watchdogs have filed a lawsuit following their mass firings, which eliminated oversight of President Donald Trump’s administration.

According to The Associate Press report, the lawsuit submitted on Wednesday in federal court in Washington, requests that a judge declare the firings unlawful and reinstate the inspectors general to their respective positions.

These watchdogs are responsible for identifying waste, fraud, and abuse within government agencies, serving a nonpartisan oversight role over trillions of dollars in federal spending and the actions of millions of federal employees, as outlined in the lawsuit.

While presidents have the authority to remove inspectors general, the Trump administration failed to provide the legally required 30-day notice to Congress, a move criticised even by a leading Republican.

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The White House has not yet responded to requests for comment regarding the lawsuit, added the report.

Trump has stated his intention to appoint new “good people” to these positions.

The administration dismissed over a dozen inspectors general in a sweep on the fourth full day of Trump’s second term. Although inspectors general are appointed by the president, many serve across party lines and are expected to remain nonpartisan. Notably, two of the plaintiffs had been nominated by Trump during his first term.

“The firing of the independent, nonpartisan inspector general was a clear violation of the law,” AP quoted Michael Missal, the former inspector general of the Department of Veterans Affairs, as saying.

“The IGs are bringing this action for reinstatement so that they can go back to work fighting fraud waste and abuse on behalf the American public,” Missal added.

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At the time of the firings, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said there may have been good reasons for the terminations but that Congress needed to know.

The lawsuit comes a day after the White House fired the inspector general for the U.S. Agency for International Development, following a warning from his office that the administration’s dismantling of that agency had made it all but impossible to monitor $8.2 billion in unspent humanitarian funds.

The role of the modern-day inspector general dates to post-Watergate Washington, when Congress installed offices inside agencies as an independent check against mismanagement and abuse of power.

Democrats and watchdog groups said the firings raise alarms that Trump is making it easier to take advantage of the government.

Trump, said at the time the firings were “a very common thing to do.” But the lawsuit says that is not true and that mass firings have been considered improper since the 1980s.

The dismissals came through similarly worded emails from the director or deputy director of the Office of Presidential Personnel. The watchdogs’ computers, phones, and agency access badges were collected within days. The officials were escorted into their respective agencies to collect their personal belongings under supervision, they said in the lawsuit.

The inspector general of the Agriculture Department, however, returned to work as normal the Monday after being informed of the firing, “recognising the email as not effective," the lawsuit said. The watchdog conducted several meetings before agency employees cut off her access to government systems and took her computer and phone.

Trump in the past has challenged their authority. In 2020, in his first term, he replaced multiple inspectors general, including those leading the Defense Department and intelligence community, as well as the one tapped to chair a special oversight board for the $2.2 trillion pandemic economic relief package.

The latest round of dismissals spared Michael Horowitz, the longtime Justice Department inspector general who has issued reports on assorted politically explosive criminal investigations over the past decade.

In December 2019, for instance, Horowitz released a report faulting the FBI for surveillance warrant applications in the investigation into ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. But the report also found that the investigation had been opened for a legitimate purpose and did not find evidence that partisan bias had guided investigative decisions.

The lawsuit was filed by the inspectors general of the departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, State, Education, Agriculture, and Labor, and the Small Business Administration.

With inputs from agencies