- Oct 17, 2011
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Across the government, at least nine key oversight investigations were impeded by clashes with the White House or political appointees, people familiar with inspector general offices say and public documents show.
The result, [inspectors general] said, was that government hid wrongdoing from the public and important reforms to improve government efficiency were ignored. With Trump now out of office, advocates for government accountability predict other damaging revelations may only now begin to emerge.
“IGs under Trump faced an angry, account-settling president who had no compunction about removing those who threatened to reveal bad things about him,” said Gordon Heddell, a former inspector general at the Defense and Labor departments who served under Republican and Democratic presidents.
Almost as soon as she opened a politically charged investigation in 2019 into whether the Trump White House blocked hurricane relief to a devastated Puerto Rico, the internal watchdog at the Department of Housing and Urban Development ran into obstacles.
Other overdue reports include an inquiry by the Commerce Department’s inspector general into the Trump administration’s controversial decision to add a question to the U.S. Census about citizenship.
Two long-running ethics probes of Ryan Zinke, Trump’s first interior secretary, remain in limbo more than two years after the president forced him out. The Pentagon watchdog has not released the results of a two-year audit of a $400 million contract to build the border wall that was awarded, at Trump’s urging, to a politically connected North Dakota construction company.
The result, [inspectors general] said, was that government hid wrongdoing from the public and important reforms to improve government efficiency were ignored. With Trump now out of office, advocates for government accountability predict other damaging revelations may only now begin to emerge.
“IGs under Trump faced an angry, account-settling president who had no compunction about removing those who threatened to reveal bad things about him,” said Gordon Heddell, a former inspector general at the Defense and Labor departments who served under Republican and Democratic presidents.
Almost as soon as she opened a politically charged investigation in 2019 into whether the Trump White House blocked hurricane relief to a devastated Puerto Rico, the internal watchdog at the Department of Housing and Urban Development ran into obstacles.
Other overdue reports include an inquiry by the Commerce Department’s inspector general into the Trump administration’s controversial decision to add a question to the U.S. Census about citizenship.
Two long-running ethics probes of Ryan Zinke, Trump’s first interior secretary, remain in limbo more than two years after the president forced him out. The Pentagon watchdog has not released the results of a two-year audit of a $400 million contract to build the border wall that was awarded, at Trump’s urging, to a politically connected North Dakota construction company.
