Go Figure: Administration Fired Another IG Without Notice to Congress, This One Investigating Amtrak

This happened in 2010. I have to admit I didn't even hear about it.

Another firing of an IG who committed the crime of doing his job.

In June 2009, longtime veteran Amtrak inspector general Fred Weiderhold was abruptly “retired” — just as the government-subsidized rail service faced mounting complaints about its meddling in financial audits and probes. Weiderhold had blown the whistle on overzealous intrusions by the agency’s law department into his investigations of $1.3 billion in rail stimulus money and exposed how Amtrak’s legal counsel had usurped the watchdog’s $5 million portion of federal stimulus dollars to hamstring his probes. Even more threatening to the Democratic attorneys’ cabal, Weiderhold discovered that the federal rail bureaucracy was retaining outside law firms beyond the independent watchdog’s reach and obstructing subpoenas issued to an outside financial adviser.

In September 2010, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) released a report concluding that the Amtrak board removed the agency’s inspector general without required prior notice to Congress and despite the inspector general’s effective track record of “exposing waste, fraud and abuse at the highest levels within Amtrak.”

The Transportation Department’s inspector general is now conducting its own independent probe of Weiderhold’s removal.

That IG had better come up with the "right" conclusion (nothing to see here, folks, investigation over) or he's going to be retired by the lawless Obama administration too.

posted by Ace at 12:51 PM

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