US President Donald Trump has fired the inspectors general of more than a dozen federal agencies in a "purge" carried out on Friday evening, according to a new US administration official, paving the way for him to appoint his own people to oversee these agencies.
These dismissals have raised concerns among some Republican senators, including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, a well-known defender of inspectors general (IGs), who said Congress did not receive the 30-day notice from the White House, as required by federal law.
Republican senators, including Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota, said they had been given no warning or explanation for the White House's decision.
"No, I haven't been told, so I'd better not comment now. I'm sure I'll have something to say," Thune told CNN.
Other Republican senators expressed concern about the fact that they had not received notice and about the large scale of these dismissals.
Senator Lisa Murkowski said these dismissals were "quite broad and spread across multiple agencies."
Several other senators, including John Barrasso, the number two Republican in the Senate, indicated that they had not received any warning about the dismissals of the inspectors general.
Otherwise, Trump had fired all White House employees who had worked with Joe Biden. /Telegraph/
