Serving as a watchdog to prevent fraud in the Trump administration is clearly not a path to a long career.
The latest to bite the dust is Stephen Akard, who quit Wednesday after less than three months as the State Department’s acting inspector general.
Attorney General Mike Pompeo won’t say why he left so abruptly.
Akard “left to go back home,” Pompeo told a Wednesday news conference. “This happens. I don’t have anything more to add to that.”
A State spokeswoman said Akard will be “returning to the private sector” in Indiana. Akard is an ally, and a previous employee, of another Hoosier, Vice President Mike Pence.
The current deputy inspector general, Diana Shaw, will take over as acting IG.
“The departure is yet another disruption to the State Department’s internal watchdog office, where hundreds of employees investigate fraud and waste,” reports the New York Times.
Just this year, Trump has fired or forced out at least six inspectors general at various federal agencies.
“Although Akard’s last day on the job is officially Friday, he is not expected to return to the office for the remainder of the week,” reports Politico.
“Akard, a former career Foreign Service officer, was installed as the department’s acting inspector general in May” after Trump fired IG Steve Linick, an Obama appointee, Politico says.
The political website notes that Linick’s removal followed “claims by a Democratic congressional aide that Linick had launched an investigation into whether Pompeo and his wife Susan” used State Department employees to perform personal tasks for them.
One possible, even likely, reason Akard quit — possibly under pressure — is that he planned to recuse himself from the ongoing Pompeo investigation.
