President Donald Trump late Friday informed Congress that he intends to remove State Department Inspector General Steve Linick.
“It is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as Inspectors General.” Trump said in a letter sent late Friday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “That is no longer the case with regard to this Inspector General.”
The dismissal is effective in 30 days. Trump did not mention Linick by name in the letter.
Linick, an Obama appointee, had served in the role since 2013. Before that, he served as the first inspector general of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Prior to that, he supervised fraud cases at the Department of Justice.
A State Department spokesperson confirmed Linick’s dismissal and said that Ambassador Stephen Akard will now lead Office of the Inspector General.
Akard was confirmed by the Senate 90-2 on Sept. 11, 2019, to lead the State Department’s Office of Foreign Missions, according to the spokesperson.
Akard was previously a career foreign service officer with the Department of State, holding various positions, including serving as a special assistant to Secretary of State Colin Powell in the Executive Secretariat; as a political officer and general services officer at the U.S. Embassy in Brussels; and as a consular officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Mumbai.
Immediately prior to his role as the director of the State Department’s Office of Foreign Missions, he held various roles at the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, and served as the senior foreign affairs adviser to Govs. Mitch Daniels, Mike Pence, and Eric Holcomb.