A series of recently released U.S. government watchdog reports have shed new light on allegations of mismanagement and wrongdoing by senior State Department officials in former President Donald Trump’s administration.
Three separate reports released in recent weeks detail accounts of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo violating federal law by using his office for political purposes, a Trump ambassador’s harassment and abuse of staff at the U.S. Embassy in Iceland, and mismanagement of resources in the State Department office that manages protocol issues.
The reports, though on separate matters, collectively provide an epitaph on an era of U.S. diplomacy marked by mismanagement, politicization, and historically low morale levels. They also raise new questions about what, if any, structural changes will be made to State Department oversight to prevent such misconduct in the future—including on matters of politicizing State Department resources, bullying staff, or the mismanagement of tens of thousands of dollars in gifts from foreign governments.
A series of recently released U.S. government watchdog reports have shed new light on allegations of mismanagement and wrongdoing by senior State Department officials in former President Donald Trump’s administration.
Three separate reports released in recent weeks detail accounts of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo violating federal law by using his office for political purposes, a Trump ambassador’s harassment and abuse of staff at the U.S. Embassy in Iceland, and mismanagement of resources in the State Department office that manages protocol issues.
The reports, though on separate matters, collectively provide an epitaph on an era of U.S. diplomacy marked by mismanagement, politicization, and historically low morale levels. They also raise new questions about what, if any, structural changes will be made to State Department oversight to prevent such misconduct in the future—including on matters of politicizing State Department resources, bullying staff, or the mismanagement of tens of thousands of dollars in gifts from foreign governments.
The three reports respectively concern allegations of Pompeo violating the Hatch Act, a law which restricts executive branch personnel from using their offices for political purposes; accounts of Trump’s ambassador to Iceland harassing and bullying embassy staff; and former Trump appointees in the Office of the Chief of Protocol mishandling and losing expensive gifts from foreign governments.
Interviews with five State Department officials with direct knowledge of some of the allegations of mismanagement issues said there is a sense that Trump officials accused of mismanagement won’t face any repercussions for their alleged misconduct—outside of being named in a smattering of after-the-fact watchdog reports. They criticized the department over inaction that led to a lack of basic accountability, even for former…
Read More: Watchdog Reports Bring New Scrutiny to Trump-Era Mismanagement at