No oversight. Now this and future administration can appoint stooges. Who will rid me of this troublesome inspector general?
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has rejected fired AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin's lawsuit seeking reinstatement to his job. In a ruling issued Tuesday morning, the three-judge panel -- one appointed by the first President Bush, another appointed by President Clinton, and the third appointed by the second President Bush -- agreed with a lower-court ruling that Walpin does not have a "clear and indisputable right" to his former job.
In June 2009, Walpin was the inspector general for the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees the AmeriCorps service program. He had been aggressively investigating the misuse of $800,000 in AmeriCorps grant money given to a program run by Kevin Johnson, the mayor of Sacramento, California who also happens to be a prominent Obama supporter. As a result of Walpin's investigation, Johnson was, for a while, suspended from receiving any new federal grants. Later, an acting U.S. attorney who was seeking a post in the Obama administration refused to pursue the Johnson matter. Inside the Corporation, Walpin expressed his unhappiness with that decision and his desire to continue investigating corruption in Sacramento.
On June 10, 2009, Walpin received a call from the White House counsel's office in which he was given one hour to resign or be fired. He chose not to resign and was fired. The action alarmed Republicans on Capitol Hill, particularly Sen. Charles Grassley, because it appeared to violate a law designed to protect the independence of inspectors general by requiring the president to give Congress 30 days' notice, plus an explanation, before firing an IG.
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