Mike Pompeo Has Poisoned the State Department
The firing of the inspector general means every successful career diplomat will serve under a pall of suspicion.
No inspector general? No problem.
Photographer: Andrew Harnik/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
At one level, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo’s decision to fire the department’s inspector general tells us nothing we didn’t already know. Even before Pompeo enabled the smearing and sidelining of U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch last year, he had made it clear that he would tolerate political attacks and even retaliation against members of the U.S. foreign service.
Just ask Inspector General Steve Linick, whose previous investigations into such instances and calls for accountability were flicked off by Pompeo. Yet Linick’s own Friday-night defenestration may have far more sinister consequences than past insults and indignities. Whether Linick was sacked for investigating Pompeo’s role in legally dubious arms sales to Saudi Arabia or his alleged use of State personnel to run personal errands is irrelevant. Either way, his unplanned departure tells the men and women of the State Department that there is no impartial recourse, no objective outlet for complaint. Pompeo is the final arbiter. Perhaps that is what Pompeo meant when, on his first day on the job, he pledged to bring “swagger” back to Foggy Bottom.