US President Donald Trump has fired the State Department's inspector general, Steve Linick, saying he no longer had his full confidence on the latter and that he would be removed in 30 days, the media reported on Saturday.
"It is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors general. That is no longer the case with regard to this inspector general," the BBC quoted Trump ias saying in a letter sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi late Friday.
Not long after Linick's dismissal was announced, Eliot Engel, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said he had opened an investigation into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
"This firing is the outrageous act of a president trying to protect one of his most loyal supporters, the secretary of state, from accountability," Engel, a Democrat, said in a statement.
"I have learned that the Office of the Inspector General had opened an investigation into Secretary Pompeo. Linick's firing amid such a probe strongly suggests that this is an unlawful act of retaliation."
Engel did not provide any further details about the content of this investigation into Pompeo, said the BBC report.
Media reporta have cited Congressional aides as saying that Linick was examining complaints that Pompeo may have improperly used staff and asked them to perform personal tasks.
Linick, a former prosecutor, was appointed by Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, to oversee spending and detect mismanagement at the State Department.
Responding to the firing, Pelosi said in a statement: "The late-night, weekend firing of State Department IG Steve Linick is an acceleration of the President's dangerous pattern of retaliation against the patriotic public servants charged with conducting oversight on behalf of the American people.
"The President must cease his pattern of reprisal and retaliation against the public servants who are working to keep Americans safe, particularly during this time of global emergency."
This is the latest in a series of dismissals of independent government watchdogs, the BBC reported.
Last month, Trump dismissed Michael Atkinson, the inspector general of the intelligence community.
Atkinson first alerted Congress to a whistleblower complaint that led to Trump's impeachment trial.
( With inputs from IANS )