By now you've heard about Donald Trump's latest improper abuse of power Saturday Night Massacre, which was his Friday night firing of State Department Inspector General (SDIG) Steve Linick. Reporting is starting to hit about why Linick was fired, besides how Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo do not like inspectors general or the oversight it is their fuckin' job to provide, which is why Trump has been on a rampage firing them ever since he was impeached for all of eternity.

In a normal world, IGs root out corruption, yes, but they're also just there to provide unbiased suggestions for How To Do Better. If there is one thing the Trump administration hates besides getting caught committing crimes, it's being told their perpetual incompetence is a bad thing. They just hate it! Congress has announced it will investigate Linick's firing, and we will not be surprised if we see him Zoom-Chatting with the House of Representatives before too terribly long.

So what was Mike Pompeo doing, allegedly, that made IG Linick investigate him? Oh just maybe having staffers walk his dog and get him reservations at restaurants, and ironing and writing "Mike's Monday Afternoon Underpants MUST CHANGE BEFORE THURSDAY" in his tighty-whities, ALLEGEDLY, although we definitely made that last one up. So that's a thing, maybe. The Washington Post says a congressional committee had gotten wind (haha we said "wind" near a joke about Mike Pompeo's underpants, gross) of Pompeo maybe making his State Department underling do his stinky work "around the time of Linick's firing," so maybe it is that.

The new IG appointee is some Mike Pence-affiliated weenus named Stephen Akard, so maybe he has promised not to get mad if Mike Pompeo makes State Department employees wipe his ass. Of course, Akard was reportedly hand-picked by Mike Pompeo, which is ... totally not how this shit is supposed to work.

But maybe it was something bigger than Mike Pompeo's skid-marks, as if there is anything in the whole world bigger than Mike Pompeo's skid-marks, allegedly:

Now THAT sounds more like something Donald Trump might fire an IG over, especially with the Trump administration's very weird and cozy and tongue-bathing relationship with the Saudi Murder Prince.

Politico has more:

The State Department inspector general who was fired by President Donald Trump late Friday night was investigating the president's effort to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia without congressional approval, according to the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. [...]

"[Linick's] office was investigating — at my request — Trump's phony declaration of an emergency so he could send weapons to Saudi Arabia," Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) said in a statement to POLITICO. "We don't have the full picture yet, but it's troubling that Secretary Pompeo wanted Mr. Linick pushed out before this work could be completed."

You see, Congress has been kind of mad — even some Republicans! — about how Trump and Jared Kushner have been giving Saudi Arabia a free pass for murdering Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and about the Trump administration's unquestioning support of the very bad and evil Saudi war on Yemen. Congress has a say in whether we sell weapons to foreign countries, but Trump declared NATIONAL EMERGY in 2019 in order to push that through without asking for Congress's opinion.

Remember last year when Pompeo's State Department could not WAIT to publicly blame Iran for an attack on Saudi oil production facilities, even though Houthi rebels in Yemen were taking credit for it? It sure looked like we were going to get into a stupid war with Iran there for a minute, upon Saudi Arabia's orders. But like Donald Trump taking a woman furniture shopping, they just couldn't get there.

Point is, without totally rehashing all Trump's Saudi weirdness — which we may have to do in the coming days, oh boy! — the Trump administration has been outsourcing a lot of American war decisions to Prince Mohammed Bone Saw, instead of the United States Congress, and it sounds like Steve Linick was investigating stuff related to that.

CNN also is reporting that Linick did a little bitty thing during the Trump impeachment, by giving Congress a briefing about Rudy Giuliani's batshit lie-filled smear campaign against both Joe Biden and former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch. Mike Pompeo's Department of State was not acknowledging the impeachment investigation was even real, so obviously Linick did a VERY BAD THING right then. So that could also be a part of this.

In short, Steve Linick appears to have been competently doing his job and maybe uncovering incompetence, corruption, grift, graft and God even knows what other crimes. And that is a no-no in the Trump administration.

Can't wait to liveblog the public hearings!

[Politico]

Follow Evan Hurst on Twitter RIGHT HERE, DO IT RIGHT HERE!

Wonkette is fully funded by readers like YOU. If you love Wonkette, SUPPORT WONKETTE FINANCIALLY.

Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons.

How often would you like to donate?

Just once Monthly

Select an amount (USD)

$2$25$5$50$10$100$15$500$20$1000