Pompeo denies retaliation but won’t explain watchdog ouster

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo adamantly denies that he recommended firing the State Department’s independent watchdog in retaliation for investigations into Pompeo’s conduct as America’s top diplomat. But Pompeo again declined to provide specific reasons for Steve Linick’s dismissal as inspector general.

Pompeo takes an unusually harsh shot at the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez. Pompeo accuses the senator’s office of being behind allegations that Linick’s ouster was motivated by revenge. Pompeo says he would not take ethics lessons from Menendez, who was once prosecuted by the Justice Department on corruption charges, but his trial ended in a hung jury and prosecutors decided in early 2018 not to retry him.

“I don’t get my ethics advice from Sen. Menendez,” he says.

Menendez responds by saying Pompeo’s use of “diversion tactics by attempting to smear me is as predictable as it is shameful.”

He says in a statement that Pompeo faced an investigation “into this improper firing and into his attempt to cover up his inappropriate and possibly illegal actions,” and that it was no surprise Pompeo was lashing out against lawmakers for their congressional oversight.

Pompeo does acknowledge that he was aware of an investigation into his decision last year to bypass congressional objections to approve a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Saudi Arabia because he had answered written questions about it posed by Linick’s office, but Pompeo maintains he did not know the scope or scale of the investigation.

Trump fired Linick late on Friday in what congressional aides have suggested was a move to preempt investigations into Pompeo’s personal conduct or possible impropriety in the Saudi arms sale. Pompeo, who previously told The Washington Post that Linick had been “undermining” the State Department’s work, said he had recommended Linick’s removal, but refused to cite specific reasons.

— AP