Trump aides retaliated against State staffer of Iranian descent, probe finds
President Donald Trump’s political appointees inappropriately retaliated against a career civil servant at the State Department in part because of her ethnic background, her perceived political views, and the fact that she was in government during prior administrations, a federal watchdog says.
In a report to be released publicly later this week, State Department Inspector General Steve Linick recommends that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo consider disciplining officials found to have violated policies that require they use merit-based factors in determining where to place career staffers.
The report has been in the works for more than a year. It covers five cases, and overall its findings are mixed — and thus sure to disappoint many State Department staffers — in part because the inspector general says he was "unable to obtain essential information from key decision-makers."
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But it lands at a particularly sensitive moment: Trump faces an impeachment inquiry whose elements involve the mistreatment of career diplomats, in particular those dealing with Ukraine. On Wednesday, two senior State Department officials testified in the first public hearing of the House's impeachment inquiry about the "irregular" foreign policy channel to Kyiv led by the president's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. On Friday, former ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch is due to testify; her sudden recall last spring has angered many State Department diplomats, who feel Pompeo should have backed her in the face of a smear campaign orchestrated by Giuliani.
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/13/trump-aides-state-department-staffers-070419
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