President Donald Trump fired another Inspector General last week, and this one was reportedly investigating Elaine Chao, the wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the secretary of the Department of Transportation.
Mitch Behm, a 17-year veteran with the Office of the Inspector General, was fired on Friday, the same day Trump also fired the IG of the State Department, Steve Linick. Linick was reportedly investigating Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Behm, who was DOT’s deputy inspector general, had been serving as acting inspector general for the department, since the department had no confirmed IG.
Behm’s investigation centered around whether Chao had used her position at DOT to benefit Kentucky inappropriately, and thus aid her husband’s chances at re-election. In addition, there have been numerous questions about the conflicts of interest between Chao’s position as head of Transportation and her family’s shipping business.
With no confirmed inspector general for Transportation, and now no acting inspector general either, Trump has appointed Howard “Skip” Elliott, a political appointee that heads up the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), which is part of DOT.
In other words, Elliott will now be policing himself.
Democrats push back
Three Democrats from the House have written to Chao and Elliott demanding answers, and that Behm be reinstated.
As reported by Joan McCarter of Daily Kos, House Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Transportation Chair Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-VA) said in their letter to Chao: “Mr. Behm’s removal is the latest in a series of politically motivated firings of Inspectors General by President Trump. This assault on the integrity and independence of Inspectors General appears to be an intentional campaign to undermine their ability to expose corruption and protect taxpayer dollars from waste, fraud, and abuse.”
In their letter to Elliott, the committee leaders demanded he step down from his job at PHMSA and recuse himself from any investigations of that agency, or of Chao. The “inherent conflict of interest would prohibit you from having the independence necessary to conduct fair and rigorous oversight of the Department and the Secretary,” they wrote. “Your dual appointment could severely chill whistleblower disclosures to the Office of Inspector General because whistleblowers might fear that their identities could become known to an official still serving in the Department.”
The McConnell-Chao influence
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) said in a statement,
“As Senate Majority Leader, McConnell was integral to the Senate’s consideration of Howard Elliott’s nomination to lead PHMSA. Now McConnell will also be instrumental to Eric Soskin’s potential confirmation as permanent IG. Soskin is a Justice Department trial lawyer “involved in some hot-button immigration and civil rights cases.” These moves will leave oversight of the Chao-McConnell investigation in the hands of Trump administration officials who McConnell has effectively endorsed.
“In the case of Elliott, as Secretary, Chao maintains authority to fire him from PHMSA. As CREW has pointed out before, this situation poses a huge conflict of interest. How can the American people expect transparency and accountability when the watchdogs must pass a loyalty test from the President and be approved by officials impacted by their investigations?
“The President’s attack on inspector general independence at DOT deserves just as much public scrutiny as all the rest. It is no coincidence that an experienced and independent watchdog was sidelined while carrying out an investigation into alleged political corruption involving the Transportation Secretary and Trump’s chief enabler in the Senate, Leader McConnell. The administration’s Friday night announcements appear to be designed to keep us from taking notice. It is incumbent upon Congress, the public, and the good government community not to let President Trump get away with it yet again.”
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For more on Chao, McConnell, and inspectors general, see this article on the CREW website.