“I went to the President and explained to him that Inspector General Linick did not carry out the functions in the way we tried to do for him, which was in addition to the State Department, very consistent with what according to the law it was supposed to do,” he said in an interview with Post. “The type of activity he should be doing to make us better, to improve us.”
He did not elaborate on what specifically made him unhappy about Linick’s job performance.
Pompeo, in his first public comment on the matter, claimed that he did not know that Linick was investigating him at the time he recommended that IG be removed. According to the Post, he only knew about one case “involving national security matters.”
“It is unlikely that this decision, or my recommendation, more precisely, to the President, is based more on efforts to retaliate for any investigation that is taking place, or is in progress,” Pompeo said. “Because I really don’t know. I wasn’t briefed about it. I usually see this investigation in the form of a final draft 24 hours, 48 hours, before the IG is ready to release it.”
“So it is absolutely impossible for this to be an act of retaliation. End of story,” he said.
Deputy Foreign Minister for Management Brian Bulatao also advised the Post that leakage from the Inspector General’s Office was instrumental in Linick’s removal, but said they had no evidence that the overturned IG was personally involved with the leak.
The Office of the Inspector General acts as an independent supervisor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. One of its core values is “integrity” – “We maintain our independence and act with courage, honesty and professionalism. Our work is fact-based, objective, and supported by sufficient evidence that meets professional standards,” he said on the website.
Trump told Congress on Friday about his intention to sack Linick. A senior State Department official told CNN that Pompeo had made a recommendation.
House Foreign Affairs Chair Eliot Engel, a New York Democrat, said on Monday that the ousted IG had almost completed an investigation into Pompeo’s decision to accelerate the sale of $ 8 billion in weapons to Saudi Arabia.
Then on Monday a congressional aide confirmed that Pompeo had refused to sit down for an interview with the inspector general’s office as part of the investigation.
A Democratic aide told CNN this weekend that IG had also investigated whether Pompeo made a staff member perform various personal tasks, including dropping off his dog.
Pompeo will not answer questions related to whether he asks government employees to carry out his duties for him, told the Post, “I will not answer a number of baseless accusations about all that.”
Zachary Cohen from CNN contributed to this report.
