Trump purges at least a dozen inspectors general overnight

The Trump administration fired at least a dozen federal guards late Friday night, a possibly illegal move that could face legal challenges.

Speaking from the Senate floor Saturday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the guard’s firings a “chilling purge.”

“These firings are Donald Trump’s way of telling us that he is terrified of accountability and hostile to facts and transparency,” said Schumer, Democrat of New York.

The White House has not confirmed the shooting and did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.

The inspectors general were sent emails by the director of presidential staff overnight on Friday telling them that “due to a change in priorities, your position as inspector general … has been terminated, effective immediately,” according to CBS News, the US partner partner of the BBC.

The group of fired watchdogs includes the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services and the inspector general for the Small Business Administration, CBS said.

There were competing lists of fired guards, according to the New York Times. The watchdogs at the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Transportation and Veterans Affairs, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, were reported.

Congress created inspector generals in the wake of the Watergate scandal as part of a wave of reforms designed to curb corruption, waste and fraud. Independent watchdogs — who work within federal agencies but are not overseen by the head of those agencies — are meant to serve as a watchdog against mismanagement and abuse of power.

Although they are presidential appointees, they are expected to be non-partisan.

The firing could violate a law that requires the White House to give Congress 30 days’ notice and case-specific information before dismissing a federal inspector general.

Hannibal Ware, the inspector general of the Small Business Administration and head of the Agency Watchdog Council, sent a letter to Sergio Gore, the head of the White House Office of the President’s Staff, suggesting the firings were invalid.

“I encourage you to contact the White House’s intended course of action,” Ware wrote. “At this point, we do not believe that the actions taken are legally sufficient to reject the president’s Senate-confirmed inspectors general appointees.”

Democrats were quick to criticize the president for the move.

Schumer said the move was a “visualization of the lawless approach” Trump and his administration are taking.

Gerry Connolly, Democrat of Virginia and ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, called the firing a “Friday night coup” and “an attack on transparency and accountability.”

Some Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, also expressed concern about the purge.

“I don’t understand why anyone would fire individuals whose mission is to root out waste, fraud and abuse,” Collins said at the Capitol on Saturday. “I don’t get it.”