Former Veteran Affairs Inspector General Michael Missal raged at President Donald Trump during an MSNBC interview after being laid off along with many other via a “two-sentence email.”
Recently, the Trump White House fired a number of inspectors general in mass firings that have been very controversial.
Earlier this week, a group of eight former internal government watchdogs filed a lawsuit against the administration over their terminations. The president is required by law to notify Congress 30 days prior to removing an inspector general, but did not give that notice.
During a Saturday interview with MSNBC anchor Ali Velshi, Missal slammed the administration claiming his dismissal was a “clear violation of the law.”
VELSHI: So what’s the what’s the case that you’ve got right now? The merits of the case are that you were fired incorrectly?
MISSAL: Correct. We got a two sentence email on Friday night, January 24th. Under the law, and this is something Congress felt very strongly about, the president does have the right to remove IGs, but if the president wants to remove it, he’s got to do at least two things. One is give the Congress 30 days notice. This is so Congress can decide whether or not they want to talk to the president about it. And secondly, give a detailed case, specific reason why they’re firing. Again, so Congress has more information and the public has more information. If we didn’t do our job, we should be replaced. And so neither of those were done in this situation. It’s a clear violation of the law! And that’s why we brought the lawsuit.
VELSHI: Why do you think you as nonpartisan independent people have not been included in this process? Why? Why is it easier just to get rid of you?
MISSAL: Well, obviously, we would love to know the reason. No reason was given. You know, one thing you could say is maybe they don’t want the independent watchdogs. Maybe they want lapdogs instead of watchdogs. You know, we do the job. We bring hard hitting reports when necessary. We’re able to take on senior leaders at different agencies if they’ve done something wrong. And so maybe that’s not something that they want.
