Trump Fires 17 Inspectors General in Late-Night Purge

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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/24/us/politics/trump-fires-inspectors-general.html

Trump Fires 17 Inspectors General in Late-Night Purge
The internal government watchdogs were believed to have been dismissed at several major agencies, though the Justice Department’s was not said to have been among them.
By Maggie Haberman and Annie Karni
Published Jan. 24, 2025 Updated Jan. 25, 2025, 12:51 a.m. ET

President Trump fired 17 inspectors general, the internal watchdogs who monitor federal agencies, on Friday night, capping a week of dramatic shake-ups of the federal bureaucracy focused on loyalty to the president, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

The sweeping move did not affect Michael E. Horowitz, the inspector general for the Justice Department, according to one of the people with knowledge of the matter. But inspectors general at several major agencies were believed to have been fired.

The firings threatened to upend the traditional independence of the internal watchdogs, and critics of Mr. Trump reacted with alarm.

“Inspectors general are charged with rooting out government waste, fraud, abuse and preventing misconduct,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, said in a statement. “President Trump is dismantling checks on his power and paving the way for widespread corruption.”

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