Yesterday, several media outlets announced that President Trump had, on Friday night, terminated approximately 17 Inspectors General from various Departments to include the Departments of Defense, State, Transportation, Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, Interior and Energy.  Many of those outlets were quick to raise the alarm – purporting that the move would pave an unimpeded way for the President to carry out what some called Trump’s “grift.”  Of course, many of those pundits have already proven themselves to be far from soothsayers, having completely punted on their recent election predictions.  We at the Walk the Talk Foundation would like to offer now some real perspectives on the purge, having worked for many years in this field while advising and advocating for 400+ current and former service members, the vast majority of whom were enduring an IG investigation, either as a subject or complainant.

What the firings mean…

For years, leaders within the Department of Defense, as well as Homeland Security, have brazenly violated the laws of this country, and done so with impunity.  They violated Title 5, Title 10, Title 50, The Privacy Act, The Freedom of Information Act, and The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), to name just a few.  They did so while their Inspector General systems stood and complicity watched.  By the Department of Defense Inspector General’s (DoDIG) own reporting, in the last years, the IG system substantiated 2.4% of reprisal complaints (and this does not account for those cases they dismissed without investigation).  The same IG system failed to investigate serious concerns regarding the maligned Red Hill fuel facility before a spill poisoned 90,000 people in Hawaii.  It watched as 70+ members of the Defense Intelligence Agency reported allegation after allegation of abuse, discrimination, violations of prohibitions of intelligence activities, and managers who had willfully interfered with the Afghanistan evacuation operation of 2021.  It spectated as the personal and professional lives of honorably-serving service members were ruined, resulting in an immense trust deficit vis-à-vis our military and staggering suicide rates.  We at the Foundation have consistently reported these failures and the dire need for reform.  Our pleas, to this point, have by and large fallen on deaf ears, in both Executive and Legislative branches.