Pentagon watchdog who was demoted as part of Trump's oversight purge abruptly resigns

• Glenn Fine, the Pentagon’s principal deputy inspector general, abruptly resigned from his post on Tuesday, CNN reported.
• President Donald Trump ousted him as the Pentagon’s acting watchdog in early April, and Fine returned to his previous position.
• As a result of the move, Fine was also removed as chair of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, which is overseeing the disbursal of the government’s $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package.
• Trump has ousted four inspectors general in the past two months, in the intelligence community and at the departments of State, Defense, and Health and Human Services.
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Glenn Fine, the principal deputy inspector general at the Department of Defense, abruptly resigned from his post on Tuesday, CNN reported.

The news comes after President Donald Trump ousted Fine in April as the Pentagon’s acting inspector general. As a result, Fine was also removed as head of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, which is charged with overseeing the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package.

Fine’s removal was one in a series of what’s been dubbed “Friday night massacres” – firing of officials typically announced by the Trump administration late on Friday evenings to minimize their media impact.

Fine was picked to chair the committee in late March, but he was no longer able to lead the panel after being removed as acting inspector general.

Amid the shake-up at the Pentagon, Fine returned to his previous role as the principal deputy inspector general.

“It has been an honor to serve in the Inspector General community,” he wrote in his resignation letter, according to CNN. “The role of Inspectors General is a strength of our system of government. They provide independent oversight to help improve government operations in a transparent way.”

“They are a vital component of our system of checks and balances, and I am grateful to have been part of that system,” he said.

“After many years in the DoJ and DoD OIGs, I believe the time has come for me to step down and allow others to perform this vital role. I wish the men and women of the DoD OIG and the Inspector General Community continued success in these important responsibilities.”

Fine has been serving at the Department of Defense since January 2016. He will officially step down from his post on June 1, becoming the latest watchdog to leave the administration. A defense official told CNN that Fine was not directed to resign, revealing that his decision to leave was his own.

On April 3, the president fired Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community’s inspector general who drew Trump’s ire when he alerted Congress to an anonymous whistleblower complaint accusing Trump of trying to solicit Ukraine’s interference in the 2020 US presidential election.

The whistleblower complaint became the catalyst for Trump’s impeachment on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The Republican-controlled Senate acquitted Trump of both charges earlier this year.

On April 7, Trump removed Fine from his role as acting inspector general.

One month later, on May 2, the president moved to replace Christi Grimm, the Department of Health and Human Services acting inspector general.

Grimm angered Trump after she released a report in March that said there were “severe shortages” of testing kits in the US, “widespread shortages” of masks and other personal protective equipment at hospitals across the country, as well as significant delays in getting coronavirus test results. The deficits hampered the US’s ability to respond effectively to the coronavirus outbreak and curb its spread, the report found.

And on May 15, the president fired the State Department inspector general, Steve Linick.

Reports in the days immediately following his firing indicated that at the time of his ouster, Linick was investigating whether Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a staffer walk his dog and carry out other personal errands.

The Washington Post later reported that Linick was also investigating Pompeo’s decision to expedite an $8 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia last May. The Trump administration circumvented congressional authority on the matter at the time by citing heightened tensions with Iran.