According to disturbing reporting from Reuters, an inspector general who was fired from her position by Donald J. Trump last week upon his return to the US presidency has been physically escorted from her office by security officials after she refused to accept her orders of termination from the position.
The publication reports that Phyllis Fong, who had served as the United States Department of Agriculture inspector general for more than two decades, showed up to work on Monday morning and proclaimed that she was staying in her position, despite Donald Trump’s proclamation last week that she, as well as a dozen other inspector generals, were being fired from their positions under his reign.
According to United States law, the executive branch is required to give Congress a 30-day notice if/when it intends to terminate inspector generals from their positions. Given that Donald Trump has been in office for less than two weeks now, this termination order has left many legal observers to conclude that Trump is violating the law with his efforts to purge the United States government of independent watchdogs.
Over the weekend, Fong penned an email to her colleagues confirming her intention to stay in her position in the Department of Agriculture, citing the opinion of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency that “these termination notices do not comply with the requirements set out in law and therefore are not effective at this time.”
Donald Trump’s decision to purge the US government of inspector generals was so abrupt and unhinged that it sparked backlash from within his own party, even prompting some of his own devout allies, such as Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, to openly demand answers and further demand that President Trump comply with the United States law.
Read the unsettling full report from Reuters here.
Featured image via The Resistance Report Gallery