Donald Trump’s firing of more than a dozen independent federal government watchdogs late on Friday was a “clear violation of law”, says the US senator Adam Schiff, one of the president’s fiercest political opponents.
“Yeah, he broke the law,” the California Democrat said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press. “And not just any law – but a law meant to crowd out waste, fraud and abuse.”
Schiff’s remarks add to a chorus of criticism against Trump, who capped off the first work week of his second presidency by dismissing the inspectors general at agencies including the departments of state, defense and transportation with immediate effect via Friday night emails.
The dismissals ostensibly aim to clear the way for Trump to appoint loyalist replacements. They also evidently violate federal law, which requires the president to give both the US House and Senate reasons for the dismissals as well as 30 days’ notice. Among those to make that assertion was Hannibal “Mike” Ware, chairperson of the Council of the Inspectors General.
“At this point,” Ware wrote in a letter addressed to the White House, “we do not believe the actions taken are legally sufficient to dismiss presidentially appointed, Senate confirmed inspectors general.”
Schiff on Sunday reminded Meet the Press viewers that Trump during his first presidency fired the inspector general of the US intelligence community amid political backlash over his administration’s botched handling of the deadly Covid-19 pandemic. That inspector general, Michael Atkinson, had relayed to Congress a whistleblower complaint that he deemed credible and alleged Trump abused his office by attempting to have Ukraine investigate his political rivals.
Shortly after firing Atkinson, Trump dismissed the acting inspector general for the defense department, Glenn Fine, who had been tapped to lead an oversight panel of Covid-19 spending. The Covid-19 pandemic killed more than 350,000 people in the US in 2020, when Trump’s presidency ended in defeat to Joe Biden, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Schiff said he believed Trump’s goal with the latest round of firings was “to remove anyone [who’s] going to call the public attention to his malfeasance”.
“The American people, if we don’t have good and independent inspector generals, are going to see … rampant waste, fraud … [and] corruption,” Schiff said.
Those comments from Schiff came in direct response to ones delivered earlier on Meet the Press by Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of Trump’s fellow Republicans. Graham had said “technically, yeah”, Trump’s firing violated the law governing the employment of such inspectors general, but “I’m not, you know, losing a whole lot of sleep that he wants to change personnel out.
“I just want to make sure that he gets off to a good start,” said Graham, echoing other members of his party.
Schiff suggested he was dumbfounded that someone like Graham would “write off this clear violation of law by saying: ‘Well, technically, he broke the law.’”
“I have to say … yeah, he broke the law,” Schiff added, referring to Trump.
Schiff served in the US House before winning election in November to the Senate seat once held by Dianne Feinstein, his late fellow Democrat. In his prior post, Schiff was a member of the committee that investigated the attack on the US Capitol that Trump supporters carried out in early 2021 in a desperate attempt to keep him office despite his electoral loss to Biden.
Trump gave unconditional pardons to more than 1,500 people who were either convicted of or charged with roles in the Capitol attack.
Schiff also led one of Trump’s two impeachments during the president’s first stint in the Oval Office. And Schiff recently spurned an invitation from Trump to travel with him to areas in Los Angeles that have been devastated by deadly wildfires.
Biden afforded Schiff, his party colleague, a pre-emptive pardon that was intended to protect the senator from retaliatory prosecution.
At the start of Trump’s second presidency, Schiff said his unconditional pardon from Biden was unnecessary because all he had ever sought to do was “uphold the law”. He also said Biden was “wrong” for extending pardons to family members, including his son, Hunter, on convictions of tax evasion and lying on gun ownership application forms.
Schiff argued that such clemency signaled to presidential families that they can engage in any kind of “criminality” and expect pardons on the way out the door.
On Sunday, Schiff told Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker that he was equally “appalled by” the pardons Trump gave to Capitol attackers.
“It sends a message to others out there: if you use violence to keep Donald Trump in power, or use violence in the service of Donald Trump, he will have your back,” Schiff said. “Because he did have their back ultimately.”
