Former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis issued a rare public rebuke of President Trump Tuesday over his decision to fire Glenn Fine, the Pentagon inspector general charged with overseeing implementation of the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package.

“Mr. Fine is a public servant in the finest tradition of honest, competent governance,” Mattis told Yahoo News in an email. “In my years of extensive engagement with him as our Department of Defense’s acting Inspector General, he proved to be a leader whose personal and managerial integrity were always of the highest order.”…

At the time, Horowitz praised Fine as “uniquely qualified” to head the committee, noting his 15 years of experience heading up inspector general offices at Justice and Defense as well as his commitment to “the need for transparency surrounding, and strong and effective independent oversight of, the federal government’s spending in response to this public health crisis.”