Inspectors general fired by Trump file lawsuit to get their jobs back

Eight inspectors general who were fired by President Donald Trump last month are suing the federal government over what they allege are “unlawful and unjustified purported termination[s].”

The eight inspectors general claimed Trump broke the law when he attempted to terminate them without justifying their removal or giving Congress 30-day notices.

“The purported firings violated unambiguous federal statutes — each enacted by bipartisan majorities in Congress and signed into law by the President — to protect Inspectors General from precisely this sort of interference with the discharge of their critical, non-partisan oversight duties,” they said in the lawsuit.

In an interview with ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Robert Storch, the Defense Department inspector general and one of the eight plaintiffs in the new lawsuit against the administration, said people “should be concerned that the very valuable system of independent, nonpartisan oversight” is “being threatened” by efforts to remove the watchdogs from office without properly notifying Congress.

“The process ensures that if a president wants to dismiss an inspector general … that Congress, and through it the American people, understands why the president wants to do that,” he said, adding that it sends a “horrible message” to the public.

Trump attempted to fire 17 inspectors general during his first week in office, sending a two-sentence email to each of the independent watchdogs. The eight inspectors general who brought the lawsuit, from the departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, State, Agriculture, Education and Labor, as well as the Small Business Administration, were responsible for overseeing a combined $5 trillion in appropriated funds and 3.5 million federal employees, according to the lawsuit.

“Firing 18 now, regrettably 19 after the [firing of the USAID inspector general] last night, sends a message that that this sort of independent oversight is something that’s not desired when, in fact, it’s incredibly important for the American people,” Storch said.

The lawsuit said that because Trump allegedly failed to take the necessary steps to terminate the employees, the terminations are “legal nullities” and the inspectors general technically continue to serve in their lawfully appointed roles. The plaintiffs called out the Trump administration for revoking the officials’ access to their computers and government-issued phones and their ability to enter their government buildings.

“These actions have had their intended effect of making it impossible for the IGs to perform their lawful duties,” the lawsuit said.

The inspectors general are asking a federal court in Washington, D.C., to declare that their purported terminations are “legally ineffective,” enjoin the Trump administration from preventing them from doing their jobs and affirm that they continue to serve in their roles until the Trump administration follows the legal avenue to remove them.

Before Storch’s confirmation to serve at the Pentagon under President Joe Biden, where his office investigated Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s secret hospitalization and tracked the shipment of U.S. weapons to Ukraine, he served as inspector general at the National Security Agency — a position to which he was nominated by Trump.

“Administrations are entitled to whatever priorities they want to have. Elections have consequences,” he said. “Our job is to do independent, nonpartisan oversight that, whatever their priorities are, improves the economy, the effiiciency, the effectiveness and that ferrets out waste, fraud and abuse. … That’s really a complicated job.”