A former inspector general for the U.S. Agency for International Development said he knew he would be fired over a report blasting the Trump administration for cutting crucial funds, but did it anyway.
“This should be an alarm to all Americans,” former USAID inspector general Paul Martin warned the country about government watchdogs being let go by Trump.
An inspector general conducts independent investigations and audits into any potential fraud, waste or abuse and issues recommendations based on its findings. That role is being replaced by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Dozens of inspectors general were let go in a brutal Friday night purge carried out by the Trump administration in January. Several of the watchdogs let go recently sat down with the Wall Street Journal to describe the moment they were told and reflect on the firings last month.
“I looked at my personal phone and it was just swamped with texts saying, ‘I've been fired. How about you?’” said Michael Missal, a former inspector general with the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“My phone was blowing up with lots of fellow IGs saying, ‘I'm fired. Are you fired?’” Martin added.
When most of his colleagues were suddenly let go at the end of January, Martin was still in his post. But the day after his office released a damning report warning that $489 million worth of food assistance was at risk of spoilage after Trump’s administration dismantled USAID, Martin’s time was up.
The Journal’s Damian Paletta asked Martin: “Did you think when you put out that report, that it could cause waves, and that might be the kind of thing that would get the White House’s attention and lead for you to be fired?”
“Yes,” Martin said defiantly.
“And you did it anyway?” Paletta asked.
“Yes,” he replied. “That's the kind of oversight that we do.”
Martin said that his team issued the report after the mass firings across USAID, warning that the move created serious risks by cutting humanitarian assistance programs around the world, “particularly in the Gaza, West Bank, area.”
“So we put that alert out on Monday,” Martin recalled. “And on Tuesday, about 5:30 p.m. that evening, I received an email from the White House Office of Personnel indicating that I too was terminated.”
“I think the concept of independent, aggressive oversight via in-house inspector general is at a tipping point, and I think that this should be an alarm to all Americans, but in particular, Congress,” Martin added.
Missal added that he is “very concerned about the future” if Congress doesn’t “stand up” to the administration and fight for a “truly independent inspectors general.”
In response, Trump’s White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt hit out at “bureaucrats” who she claimed are “resistant to the democratic process and mandate delivered by the American people.”
“President Trump is only interested in the best and most qualified people who are also willing to implement his America first agenda on behalf of the American people,” Leavitt said in a statement.
A group of inspector generals, including Missal and Christi Grim, formerly of the Department of Health and Human Services, is now suing the Trump administration, claiming that they were fired illegally.
“It's relatively simple. The president violated the law, clear statute, by firing us, by not giving us 30 days notice or the case-specific reason,” Missal said, adding that the group is fighting to be reinstated.
