Looks like the State Department Inspector General is about to blow the lid off Donald Trump’s Ukraine scandal tomorrow
It would be an understatement to say that all hell has broken loose in the United States government. Donald Trump is being impeached and looks eventually headed to prison. Attorney General Bill Barr is in Italy trying to conspire with foreign nations to promote pro-Trump conspiracy theories. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just ordered his own people not to cooperate with the House impeachment inquiry, and in response, two key former State Department officials confirmed that they’re testifying anyway. But now something potentially even bigger is playing out.
State Department Inspector General Steve Linick isn’t just defying Mike Pompeo’s directive not to testify to Congress, he’s sounding the alarm in the loudest way possible. Linick has informed Congress that he needs to immediately brief the top committees in the House and Senate about something related to the State Department and Ukraine – and now he’s testifying tomorrow. This is according to several major news outlets. So what’s going on?
The State Department Inspector General is a new player on the scene. In general, the role of an Inspector General is to oversee any accusations of corruption within that department. For instance it was the Intelligence Community Inspector General who pushed the Ukraine whistleblower complaint to the surface. Now the State Department Inspector General has decided that he’s uncovered something so crucial about the Ukraine scandal in the State Department, he’s pulling out all the stops.
By design, the Inspector General is the one person in the State Department whom Secretary of State Mike Pompeo can’t stop from running to Congress. By all accounts, the Inspector General will indeed go through with his testimony tomorrow – and in his view, whatever he’s about to tell Congress is for all the marbles in the Ukraine scandal. His testimony will be behind closed doors. But you can expect the non-classified portions of the briefing to leak out quickly thereafter. Tomorrow could end up being a historic day in Donald Trump’s downfall.
