President Trump has removed the Defense Department inspector general who was poised to oversee the $2 trillion coronavirus rescue bill that Congress approved last month.
Glenn Fine, who served in an acting capacity, is no longer eligible for the oversight panel.
“Mr. Fine is no longer on the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee,” said Defense IG spokeswoman Dwrena K. Allen.
She said Mr. Fine will revert to his position as principal deputy inspector general.
Mr. Trump tapped Sean W. O’Donnell, the IG at the Environmental Protection Agency, to serve as the acting defense IG in addition to his current role.
The president also nominated Jason Abend, a senior policy adviser at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, to serve as the Defense inspector general in a permanent capacity.
“The president thinks he should be the one [to conduct oversight] and that’s upside down,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNN. “The president is sending in some of his loyalists.”
Mrs. Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer said Congress must conduct its own oversight through a panel modeled after the Truman Committee. The committee was led by then-Sen. Harry S. Truman, which was formed in 1941 to oversee wartime production and root out profiteering.
Politico first reported Mr. Trump’s moves, which come days after he fired the inspector general for the intelligence community, Michael Atkinson, and slammed a principal deputy inspector at the Health and Human Services Department, Christi A. Grimm, who reported on severe supply shortages at hospitals.
Late Monday, Mr. Trump railed against Ms. Grimm for serving during the Obama administration, though she’s also a career official whose service stretches back to the Clinton administration.
Mr. Fine had served as acting Defense IG since January 2016, under the Obama administration, though his government service stretches back to the 1990s.
In the wake of Mr. Fine’s dismissal, Democrats have blasted the administration’s move while the chairman of the House Armed Services committee has called it a “major problem.”
“The President is not bringing talent to the challenge, he’s bringing suck-ups to the challenge. … He wants people who are loyal to him, who will praise him,” Rep. Adam Smith, Washington state Democrat, told reporters Tuesday.
“Theoretically, IGs are supposed to be independent actors, not simply subject to the whims of the President,” Mr. Smith continued.
“President Trump has been engaged in an assault against independent inspectors general since last Friday in order to undermine oversight of his chaotic and deficient response to the coronavirus crisis,” House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney said in response to Mr. Fine’s removal.
The New York Democrat said Mr. Fine had the full support of Congress and the inspector-general community.
“President Trump’s actions are a direct insult to the American taxpayers — of all political stripes — who want to make sure that their tax dollars are not squandered on wasteful boondoggles, incompetence or political favors,” she said.
• Lauren Meier and Gabriella Muñoz contributed to this report.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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