President Donald Trump has—probably illegally—fired 18 inspectors general, 17 of whom were laid off during the “midnight massacre” on Jan. 24. More recently, U.S. Agency for International Development Inspector General Paul Martin was fired on Feb. 11 after criticizing Elon Musk and his dismantling of USAID.
The Wall Street Journal interviewed Martin, along with former Inspectors General Christi Grimm of Health and Human Resources and Michael Missal of Veterans Affairs, to discuss the dangers of the Trump administration’s actions.
“Americans should be afraid of the amount of fraud, waste, and abuse in government, and that is precisely why Congress sought to install inspectors general,” Grimm said.
Grimm and Missal are two of eight former inspectors general—representing the Departments of Defense, State, Education, Agriculture, Labor, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, and the Small Business Administration—who are suing the Trump administration for “unlawful termination.”
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“It's relatively simple. The president violated the law's clear statute by firing us, by not giving the 30 days notice or the case specific reason. What we're hoping to achieve, what the relief we're seeking, is for reinstatement because it was an illegal firing,” Missal said.
Martin said he’s still considering joining the lawsuit since he was only recently fired after releasing a report criticizing Trump and Musk’s chaotic downsizing. He said that his team was blindsided by Musk’s decision to shutter USAID.
“We did have meetings with the transition team, and they were very substantive, and I think very helpful and very fruitful. But we had no interaction whatsoever with the Department of Government about efficiency,” he said.
Musk’s destruction of federal agencies has led to the “mistake” firings—followed by scrambled rehirings—of hundreds of nuclear safety workers, “accidentally” firing federal workers responsible for managing the bird flu crisis, and the potential loss of billions of dollars in funding for farmers.
“We have direct connection to our own departments, and that is critical to understand what the programs are, the complexities of them,” Grimm said.
The New York City Bar Association has "strongly" condemned the firings, calling the dismissals “not a small or ‘technical’ failure by the Administration but a clear violation of a federal law.”
It also cites the 1978 Inspectors General Act and subsequent updates, including amendments made after Trump unceremoniously fired two inspectors general during his first term.
“The federal inspector general system really is the envy of the democratic world. It's the budget. It's the access. It's the independence that gives you that true oversight capability,” Martin said.
On Feb. 14, a judge refused to immediately reinstate the inspectors general, criticizing the procedural logistics but not the substance of their claim. The case will still proceed, though far more slowly than the plaintiffs had hoped.
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