All heaven broke soft when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo requested the resignation of State Department Inspector General Steve Linick in May of this year. Even though Pompeo claimed he may have fired Linick little earlier than he did, the left-wing press and Democrats were upset that he was removed.
The fire took place after data held by the State Department’s investigator common ‘s]IG] business miraculously found its way into a Daily Beast content headlined,” State IG Set to Recommend Discipline for Trump’s Top Iran Hand”. The State IG’s research into Brian Hook, a State Department official who had terminated the career of some individuals who were viewed as devoted to the Obama administration and unfriendly to President Trump’s Iran policy was the subject of the post, which was sourced from” two state resources involved in carrying out the analysis.”
Linick told State Department officials he would call his companions at the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Performance ( CIGIE), whose Integrity Committee oversees the IG auditors because the hole of the document about certainly came from Linick’s business. Instead, he chose the Department of Defense IG to find out if any of the 15 State Department IG’s staff members had access to the draft report.
There was no specific proof that this was related to the leak, despite Linick having emailed portions of the Hook report to his personal email account in violation of State Department policy in an “exceedingly cursory” review. Midway through March, Linick informed State Under Secretary Brian Bulatao that the Defense Department IG could not find any proof that any State IG staff had been a part of the leak. Bulatao asked for a copy of the report, and Linick said he’d provide it but did n’t. Two months later, Linick was informed that he would be let go and placed on administrative leave. He was instructed not to speak with IG employees or enter the building. However, he communicated with IG staff and entered the building.
Bulatao requested that Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department IG who was then in charge of CIGIE, penne a letter to him and request that he reexamine what had transpired. “]T] here may have been a significant breakdown in the typically rigorous standards of an IG investigation, warranting CIGIE review”, Bulatao pleaded.
Horowitz referred the request to CIGIE’s Integrity Committee. In a remarkable letter from that committee in December 2020, Linick claimed every action was appropriate, including breaking the law, entering the building while on leave, mailing official documents to his personal account, and shopping for his own hand-pick investigator.
Watchdog Watcher Is Failing
The Integrity Committee is supposed to be the government’s last line of defense against wrongdoing at the most powerful levels. Nearly a dozen people with knowledge of the situation report that it has failed to root out serious allegations made against its allies under the leadership of Kevin Winters while pursuing others through unrelenting harassment and meritless investigations.
Members of Congress are asking Winters to explain by June 3 why he “failed to investigate serious allegations” against three senior Department of Homeland Security IG employees who were identified by an independent analysis conducted by WilmerHale as having engaged in fraud, misconduct, retaliation, and abuse of authority.
The request from Rep. Andy Biggs, R- Ariz., and eight other members of Congress relates to an incident that began in 2019, before Winters was appointed. When the Integrity Committee received a request from DHS IG Joseph Cuffari to look into the three employees, that request was refrained. Cuffari was advised to engage in a formal procurement process and have an independent and impartial investigation from an outside law firm because the misconduct was so severe. The WilmerHale firm discovered that the allegations were supported as well, and that the then-vice chairwoman of CIGIE had encouraged the employees ‘ behavior. That woman, Allison Lerner, struggled to answer questions about her role during a 2021 line of questioning from Sen. Josh Hawley, R- Mo.
Then- senior DHS officials Jennifer Costello, Karen Ouzts, and Diana Shaw were implicated in the wrongdoing. For instance, it was discovered that Ouzts and Costello had altered federal employment records to make it appear as though Costello should be acting as DHS IG, a position that Costello had refused to fill. This was done after the three women were “hostile, aggressive, and disrespectful” toward acting IG John Kelly, inducing him to retire.
” Percepsibly Arya would take some business here into consideration”? Although the DHS OIG throne is less glamorous, there is a night king that is. wo n’t. die”, Costello emailed Ouzts, a reference to fictional” Game of Thrones” assassin Arya Stark and the trio’s efforts to force Kelly out. The three women allegedly came up with the idea of a “nuclear option,” a release of Kelly-favorable reports, and retirement plan that the three women called” the nuclear option.” The women allegedly used their official names and office hours to launch a hate-mongering campaign against Cuffari after their attempt to stop him from being appointed failed. Ken Klippenstein detailed much of this dysfunction, which he discovered through FOIA requests, at The Intercept.
Winters received the WilmerHale report, but he has reportedly not taken any action in response. One of the suspects even went on to work for Linick as an acting inspector general.
Instead, DHS IG Cuffari has “been endlessly harassed and had his office’s resources drained by a series of baseless inquiries” from the very same Integrity Committee.
Cuffari also began a review of DHS law enforcement’s response to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U. S. Capitol. The department was not cooperating with the inquiry, and the IG began receiving opposition from the government. According to the Intercept, the IG shared the issue with other IGs in October 2021 and disclosed the issue in its semiannual reports to Congress in September 2021 and March 2022.
When the IG found that the Secret Service had deleted texts at the start of the Biden administration, he informed Rep. Bennie Thompson, D- Miss., the ostensible leader of the J6 committee. Thompson immediately launched a campaign to claim that Cuffari had withheld the information, leading to left-wing media requests for his resignation and yet another Integrity Committee investigation.
The Rogue Integrity Committee
CIGIE is no longer officially run by Horowitz, who helmed the group from 2015 through 2020, but he still plays a major role. Since Barack Obama’s nomination in 2011, Horowitz has served as the DOJ IG. Since that time, DOJ has been engaged in significant controversies, including its leading role in the egregious Russia-collation hoax, in which senior DOJ officials have spread false information alleging President Donald Trump conspired with Russia to steal the 2016 election.
In a sea of leaks, corruption, and abuse of authority, Horowitz has done virtually nothing to clean the ship. His own shop is full of political appointees who are targeted by partisan activists and leakers. Horowitz has personally encouraged dubious partisan activity, such as having IGs visit the White House to aid Biden in adolescent fiscal responsibility in some of the legislation he campaigns for.
Horowitz has assisted CIGIE in acquiring funding and power. He established a referring panel to determine who qualifies as an inspector general and suggested ways to raise CIGIE funding. Horowitz hand- picked Winters for the Integrity Committee. According to reports, Horowitz and Winters reportedly established a memorandum of understanding to discuss incoming allegations and advise on who would be the subject of an investigation and when Winters assumed leadership of the committee. After a few months of outcry, Horowitz reportedly ceased triaging the incoming allegations.
The Integrity Committee chair is supposed to serve for a term of two years under the law. However, Winters has served in that capacity since June of 2020.
” If they like you, you can do no wrong. You can only do wrong if they hate you, said a senior IG member at one federal agency who has observed the disparity.
The inspector general community is supposed to root out waste, fraud, and corruption in the federal government. When its own watchdog is unaccountable, helping out its friends and targeting others with harassment campaigns, the work is made more difficult.
