President Donald Trump’s firing of more than a dozen independent federal monitors late Friday was a “clear violation of the law,” said Sen. Adam Schiff, one of the president’s fiercest political opponents. Ta.
“Yes, he broke the law,” the California Democrat said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press. “And it’s not just a law, it’s a law designed to keep out waste, fraud, and abuse.”
Schiff’s comments join a chorus of criticism of President Trump, who ended his first week in office by immediately firing the inspector generals of state, defense, transportation and other departments in an email Friday night. is further strengthened.
The firing is ostensibly intended to clear the way for President Trump to appoint a replacement of his ally. Also, they are clearly violating federal law. The law requires the president to provide both the U.S. House and Senate with a reason for removal and 30 days’ notice. Among those who made that claim was Hannibal “Mike” Ware, chairman of the Council of Inspectors General.
“At this time, the Senate does not believe that the actions taken are legally sufficient to remove the presidentially appointed inspector general,” Ware said in a letter to the White House. ” he said.
Schiff told viewers of Meet the Press on Sunday that President Trump, during his first term as president, was in charge of the U.S. intelligence community amid political backlash over his administration’s failure to respond to the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. He reminded him that he had fired the inspector general. Inspector General Michael Atkinson had passed on a credible whistleblower report to Congress alleging that President Trump abused his office by trying to get Ukraine to investigate a political rival.
Immediately after firing Atkinson, President Trump fired Glenn Fine, the acting Pentagon inspector general who had been tapped to head the coronavirus spending oversight committee. The coronavirus pandemic killed more than 350,000 people in the United States in 2020, when President Trump’s term ended with Joe Biden’s defeat, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Schiff said he believed President Trump’s purpose with this round of firings was to “remove anyone who would seek to draw public attention to his wrongdoing.”
“If America didn’t have a good, independent inspector general, the American people would see… rampant waste and fraud… (and) corruption,” Schiff said.
Schiff’s comments were in direct response to comments previously made on Meet the Press by South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s Republican allies. Graham said that “technically yes” Trump’s firing violated the laws governing the hiring of inspector generals, but added, “I don’t think, you know, that he wanted to make changes.” “I’m not losing as much sleep as I should.”
“I just want to get him off to a good start,” Graham said, as did other members of his party.
Mr. Schiff suggested that he was stunned that someone like Mr. Graham would “ignore this clear violation of the law by saying, ‘Technically speaking, he broke the law.'”
“I have to say… yes, he broke the law,” Schiff added, referring to Trump.
Schiff served in the U.S. House of Representatives and was elected in November to the Senate seat previously held by the late Democrat Dianne Feinstein. Mr. Schiff previously served on the committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol, carried out by Trump supporters in early 2021 in a desperate attempt to keep Mr. Trump in office despite his election loss to Mr. Biden. He was a member of the association.
President Trump has granted unconditional pardons to more than 1,500 people convicted of or charged with involvement in the Capitol attack.
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Mr. Schiff also led one of Mr. Trump’s two impeachments during the president’s first term in the Oval Office. And Schiff recently turned down an invitation from Trump to travel with him to an area of Los Angeles devastated by deadly wildfires.
Mr. Biden granted his party colleague, Mr. Schiff, a preemptive pardon intended to protect the senator from retaliatory prosecution.
At the beginning of Trump’s second term, Schiff said he didn’t need an unconditional pardon from Biden because all he had ever tried to do was “uphold the law.” He also said Biden was “wrong” to pardon families including his son Hunter, who was convicted of tax evasion and lying on gun applications.
Schiff argued that such leniency sends a signal to the president’s family that it doesn’t matter what kind of “crime” they commit and can expect a pardon soon.
On Sunday, Schiff told Meet the Press host Kristen Welker that he was equally “appalled” by the pardons President Trump granted to the Capitol attackers.
“This sends a message to others that if you use violence to keep Donald Trump in power, or use violence for Donald Trump, he will protect you.” Schiff said. “Because he ultimately supported them.”
