Month: February 2025

Eight U.S. inspectors general filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump and his administration on Wednesday, alleging their firings violated federal law. The inspectors general asked the U.S. District Court in Washington to declare they remained lawfully in their roles at their agencies and asked the court to prevent the administration from obstructing their official duties.

The lawsuit (seen HERE) was filed by eight of the 17 inspectors general fired by Trump from the departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, State, Agriculture, Education, Labor and the Small Business Administration.  The lawsuit states that “the purported firings violated unambiguous federal statutes — each enacted by bipartisan majorities in Congress and signed into law by the president — to protect Inspectors General from precisely this sort of interference with the discharge of their critical, non-partisan oversight duties,” adding that Trump’s “attempt to eliminate a crucial and longstanding source of impartial, non-partisan oversight of his administration is contrary to the rule of law.”

Per the lawsuit, the firings violated the Inspector General Act, which only allows a president to remove IGs after notifying Congress at least 30 days in advance and provide a substantive case-specific rationale. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa and Sen. Dick Durbin said in a letter to Trump that IGs can be fired by presidents, but it must be done legally: “while IGs aren’t immune from committing acts requiring their removal, and they can be removed by the president, the law must be followed. IGs are critical to rooting out waste, fraud, abuse, and misconduct within the Executive Branch bureaucracy, which you have publicly made clear you are also intent on doing.”

That law amended the Inspector General Reform Act of 2008, according to the lawsuit: “Just four days into his current term, however, President Trump, acting through a two-sentence email sent by the director or deputy director of the Office of Presidential Personnel, purported to remove from office (supposedly on account of “changing priorities”) nearly a score of IGs (while retaining only two cabinet-level IGs). In the last four decades, no incoming President has attempted upon taking office to remove en masse the IGs appointed in prior administrations.”

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On Wednesday, Senate Republicans voted to confirm Tulsi Gabbard to become the nation’s director of National Intelligence. The director of national intelligence oversees the 18 agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community, including the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency. The DNI also advises the president on intelligence matters.

The 52-48 vote was largely along party lines, with nearly all Republicans present voting in favor of Gabbard. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. was the only Republican who joined all Democrats in voting against Gabbard.

McConnell in a statement that he voted against Gabbard’s confirmation as it was apparent she was not prepared for the job and demonstrated a “history of alarming lapses in judgment. The Senate’s power of advice and consent is not an option; it is an obligation, and one we cannot pretend to misunderstand. When a nominee’s record proves them unworthy of the highest public trust, and when their command of relevant policy falls short of the requirements of their office, the Senate should withhold its consent.” (per ABC News).

Gabbard is a former member of Congress representing Hawaii in the House of Representatives from 2013 until 2021. Gabbard also is a former member of the Hawaii Army National Guard and was deployed to Iraq from 2003 to 2005 as a medical specialist. She also completed Alabama Military Academy’s officer training program in 2007. She left the Democratic Party after seeking its nomination for the presidency in 2020, and joined the Republican Party in 2024.

Gabbard’s confirmation is a win for the Trump administration, as Democrats and some Republicans voiced serious concerns about Gabbard – including her secret meeting in 2017 with then-President Bashar Assad of Syria, as well as her sympathetic comments about Russia, and her previous support for Edward Snowden – a former government contractor who leaked classified information to the press about those spying programs.

Editorial credit: John M Poltrack / Shutterstock.com