{"id":2396470,"date":"2025-01-29T10:16:58","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T15:16:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dem-donors-among-fired-inspectors-general\/"},"modified":"2025-01-29T10:18:48","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T15:18:48","slug":"dem-donors-among-fired-inspectors-general","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dem-donors-among-fired-inspectors-general\/","title":{"rendered":"Dem donors among fired inspectors general"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdem-donors-among-fired-inspectors-general%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2396470&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Teh article from the Washington Examiner discusses the \u2064recent dismissal of various federal \u200binspectors\u200c general by President donald\u200d Trump. It highlights that at least six of these inspectors general had previously donated to Democratic political\u2062 committees,\u200d raising concerns about the motivations behind their \u200bfiring.\u2063 Trump dismissed 18 inspectors \u2064general\u2062 as part of what the New \u200cYork \u200dTimes described as a &#8220;late-night purge,&#8221; which includes officials responsible \u2062for overseeing waste and abuse in federal agencies.Key figures mentioned \u200dinclude Loren Sciurba from the\u200c Treasury Department,who contributed \u200dto Democratic campaigns,along with other ousted inspectors general from various departments,some of whom also supported Democratic candidates.<\/p>\n<p>The \u2063article suggests that the firings align with guidance \u2063from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/project-2025-clarifies-its-policy-proposals-in-myths-vs-facts-rebuttal-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"Project 2025 clarifies its policy proposals in \u2018myths vs. facts\u2019 rebuttal - Washington Examiner\">conservative groups advocating<\/a> for the removal of <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">inspectors general deemed ideologically biased<\/a>. It also touches upon the\u200d implications of these \u200bdismissals, warning of a \u2062potential cycle of politicization in the inspector general positions and questioning \u200dtheir legality. Notably, some inspectors general who were retained by\u2062 Trump \u200bhad\u2063 been conductively critical of the Biden administration or previously donated to Republican campaigns. The\u200b broader impact of these dismissals remains uncertain, with some\u200b officials\u200d defying the firings and continuing to \u2063report for duty. The White House did not provide\u2064 comments on the matter.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Democratic donors among inspectors general dismissed by Trump<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1957950\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>At least six of the inspectors general recently dismissed by President Donald Trump had a history of donating to Democratic political committees, a <em>Washington Examiner <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/1oVWAfBRn9XKmysqltMtlNi9ip_8C05l_JkaNifjStVQ\/edit?usp=sharing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">analysis<\/a> has found.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>In a move the <em>New York Times <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/24\/us\/politics\/trump-fires-inspectors-general.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">described<\/a> as a &ldquo;late-night purge,&rdquo; Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/opinion\/msnbc-opinion\/trump-firing-inspectors-general-undermine-government-accountability-rcna189459\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">fired <\/a>at least 18 of the 73 federal inspectors general, the officials responsible for reporting on waste and abuse at their respective agencies, on Friday. Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/01\/25\/donald-trump-inspectors-general-firing-00200611\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">told <\/a>reporters Saturday night aboard Air Force One that he was not planning to install loyalists to the now vacant inspector general positions, assuring the press that &ldquo;we&rsquo;ll put people in there that will be very good.&rdquo;&nbsp;Many of the officials he dismissed have a history of financially supporting the president&rsquo;s political opponents.<\/p>\n<p>Loren Sciurba, who served as the inspector general at the Treasury Department, for instance, gave roughly $2,300 to former Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democratic campaigns during the 2024 election cycle. The FEC has records of Sciurba donating to Democrats as far back as 2014, though the vast majority of his roughly $3,000 in lifetime contributions came during the most recent election cycle.<\/p>\n<p><em>ProPublica <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eenews.net\/articles\/leaked-project-2025-video-urged-ig-firings-to-avoid-witch-hunts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">obtained<\/a> a video from the Heritage Foundation&rsquo;s Project 2025 political appointee training module in which conservative opposition researcher Tom Jones advised that the incoming administration clear out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-fired-republican-and-democratic-inspectors-general\/\" title=\"Trump fired Republican and Democratic inspectors general\">ideologically motivated inspectors general<\/a> to avoid &ldquo;witch hunts&rdquo; and select new officials who will &ldquo;ensure that waste, fraud, and abuse is rooted out.&rdquo; The president publicly distanced himself from Project 2025 on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">President Donald Trump holds up the letter that former President Joe Biden left for him in the desk as he signs executive orders Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo\/Evan Vucci)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Other ousted inspectors general with a history of Democratic donations included Christi Grimm of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert Storch of the Defense Department, Michael Missal of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Krista Boyd of the Office of Personnel Management, and John Sopko, who served as the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction.<\/p>\n<p>Sopko has donated thousands to Democratic political committees over his lifetime, Boyd made multiple contributions to Hillary Clinton&rsquo;s 2016 presidential campaign, while Missal and Storch were both donors to former President Barack Obama.<\/p>\n<p>Storch, despite donating $1,500 to Obama and the Democratic National Committee, was sharply critical of former President Joe Biden&rsquo;s withdrawal from Afghanistan. In <a href=\"https:\/\/media.defense.gov\/2023\/Jul\/31\/2003271668\/-1\/-1\/1\/STORCH-HCOA-041923.PDF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">remarks<\/a> given to the House Oversight Committee, Storch said the American-supported Afghani army was not &ldquo;self-sufficient and resilient&rdquo; prior to the U.S. withdrawal in early 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General found that the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces &ldquo;became overreliant on U.S. and coalition forces to execute essential functions, such as training, logistics, maintenance, and support,&rdquo; Storch said. &ldquo;Senior U.S. leaders acknowledged that the ANDSF remained overly dependent on U.S. and international support. Additionally, corruption within Afghan security institutions was a contributing factor in the collapse of the Afghan government, according to DoD officials.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Sopko also displayed a willingness to release information damaging to the Biden administration during his tenure at the Office of the SIGAR, <a href=\"https:\/\/foreignaffairs.house.gov\/press-release\/chairman-mccaul-issues-statement-on-sigar-finding-u-s-dollars-funneled-to-taliban\/#:~:text=Unsurprisingly%2C%20SIGAR%20has%20found%20that,funding%20to%20benefit%20the%20Taliban.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">reporting<\/a> in 2024 that taxpayer-funded aid had fallen into the hands of the Taliban.<\/p>\n<p>A few of the inspectors general dismissed by Trump had a history of donating to Republicans.<\/p>\n<p>Mark Greenblatt, whom Trump previously appointed to serve as inspector general for the Interior Department and was part of the most recent round of firings, meanwhile, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/27\/us\/politics\/trump-inspectors-general-fired.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">warned <\/a>in an interview with the <em>New York Times <\/em>that the president risks setting off &ldquo;a never-ending cycle of politicization&rdquo; by incentivizing future Democratic presidents to fire his appointees.<\/p>\n<p>Greenblatt, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/mark-lee-greenblatt-9650737\/details\/experience\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">worked<\/a> as a Senate Republican staffer in the 2000s, donated $850 to Republican political campaigns between 2006 and 2007, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani&rsquo;s presidential bid, according to FEC records.<\/p>\n<p>Inspectors general Eric Soskin of the Transportation Department and Sean O&rsquo;Donnell of the Environmental Protection Agency, meanwhile, also previously donated to Republicans. While O&rsquo;Donnell&rsquo;s only contributions were to former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, whom Trump publicly dislikes, Soskin gave roughly $100 to Trump&rsquo;s 2020 presidential campaign. Soskin also gave over $1,000 to Romney&rsquo;s 2012 campaign.<\/p>\n<p>There is some evidence that Trump may have retained inspectors general that he feels will give him favorable coverage.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department inspector general, survived Trump&rsquo;s wave of Friday night firings. The president previously praised his work.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Michael Horowitz, we&rsquo;re keeping,&rdquo; Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2025\/01\/24\/trump-fire-inspectors-general-federal-agencies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">said<\/a> Saturday. &ldquo;I thought his report on [former FBI Director James] Comey was incredible, actually. Such an accurate, well-done report.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The president was referencing a report produced by Horowitz that was critical of Comey&rsquo;s investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign. Horowitz has also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/3166423\/inspector-general-criticizes-fbi-suspending-whistleblower\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">criticized<\/a> the FBI for forcing an agent to go on unpaid leave for years after he questioned how the agency was handling the investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\"><strong><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The impact of Trump&rsquo;s inspector general firings remains up in the air as some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/us\/trump-fires-least-12-independent-inspectors-general-washington-post-reports-2025-01-25\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">argue<\/a> the dismissals were illegal. State Department Inspector General Cardell Richardson, who was among those fired, even told his staff to show up for work in defiance of the president.<\/p>\n<p>The White House did not respond to the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em>&rsquo;s request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1957950\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1957950\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trump dismissed inspectors general, many of whom donated to Democrats<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":894,"featured_media":2396471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Donald-Trump-photo.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[3685,5131,4274,32690,49202],"class_list":["post-2396470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-democrats","tag-donors","tag-firing","tag-government-transparency","tag-inspectors-general"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Donald-Trump-photo.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2396470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/894"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2396470"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2396470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2396474,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2396470\/revisions\/2396474"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2396471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2396470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2396470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2396470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}