Before President Donald Trump fired him, the State Department’s inspector general was looking into why an award was stripped away from a Finnish journalist who was critical of the president, NBC News reports.
A congressional transcript and officials familiar with the incident revealed that former Inspector General Steve Linick was reviewing the State Department’s role in rescinding an International Women of Courage Award from a recipient.
During a hearing with lawmakers, Linick did not elaborate on the details of the probe, but NBC reports the investigation could have been looking into whether Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s office was involved in the 2019 decision to take the award away from a finalist.
“These matters involve the Office of the Secretary in some way,” Linick said during the hearing.
Several officials told NBC News that the State Department frequently checks social media accounts of guests attending official events to see if there are any anti-Trump comments. Invitees who are publicly supportive of Trump tend to make the invite list ahead of those who have been vocally opposed to the president, they told NBC.
“It’s very common for us to Google these people to see — have they said anything bad about Trump or Pompeo?” a state official told NBC News.
Linick was allegedly following up on a request from some Democrat senators to look into why the State Department withdrew its invitation to investigative journalist Jessikka Aro, who was slated to be honored during a ceremony with First Lady Melania Trump last year.
The senators said they had obtained documents that indicated Aro’s award was scrapped after officials found she criticized Trump on social media.
At the time, a State Department spokesman said Aro had been “incorrectly notified” that she was a finalist for the award due to an error.
Linick said he was looking into the matter when he was fired on May 15. He told lawmakers he has no idea if the probe is still taking place.
Aro told NBC News said she was “shocked and disappointed to learn that internationally well-reputed Mr. Linick was fired in shady circumstances.”
“At this point, I sincerely hope that all the investigations he launched will be continued and finalized professionally under the new IG's command,” Aro said. “There's a wide international interest in finding out who gave the order to cancel my courage award, and I hope one day we all learn his name."
Lawmakers are looking into why Linick was fired.
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