USDA Inspector General Escorted from Embed after defying the White House

On By Littum

Rachael Levy
| Reuters

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Washington, January 29 (Reuters) – Security Agents Escorted Inspector General for the US Department of Agriculture Out of her office Monday after she refused to comply with her firing of Trump -AdministrationTold sources familiar with the case told Reuters.

Phyllis Fong, a 22-year-old veteran of the department, had previously told her colleagues that she intended to stay after the White House terminated her Friday and said she did not think the administration had followed proper protocolssaid the sources.

In an e -mail to colleagues on Saturday, reviewed by Reuters, she said that Independent Council of Inspector’s General of Integrity and Efficiency ”has taken the attitude that these termination messages do not comply with the requirements, this time. “

Fong refused to comment.

The White House defended the firing of FONG and the other inspectors in general and said “these junk, partisan bureaucrats … have been relieved of their duties to make room for qualified persons who want to maintain the rule of law and protect democracy.”

The USDA Inspector General has a broad mandate that pursues consumer food security, audits and investigation of the agricultural department as well as violations of animal welfare legislation. USDA has been the core of Concerns for bird fluthat has spread between cattle and chickens and killed a person In Louisiana.

In 2022, the Inspector General Office launched a survey of Elon Musk’s Brain implant Start Neuralinkwhich stays in progress, sources said. In recent years, the office has also undertaken animal cruelty from dog breeders for research laboratories and the Listeria outbreak in Boar’s Head, among other questions.

Musk spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help President Donald Trump be elected in November and has emerged as a key player in the president’s track.

Fong was among 17 Federal watchdogs Fired by Trump on Friday in what critics described as a Friday night cleaning. In a talk with journalists afterwards aboard the Air Force One, Trump defended the move and said “It’s a very common thing to do.” He did not say who would be installed in the vacancies.

The redundancies, awarded less than a week after Trump joined his second period, seemed to violate federal law, the Council of Inspectors General of Integrity and Efficiency said in a letter to the White House on Friday.

Fong served as the first chairman of cigie from 2008 to 2014, according to her biography on the USDA website.