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Thursday, 11 June _The State Department’s former inspector general says US officials discouraged him from investigating arms sales to Saudi Arabia before he was fired by President Donald Trump last month.
Steve Linick, the former State Department internal watchdog, told lawmakers that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declined to sit down for an interview in the investigation of the administration’s decision to declare a “national emergency” to justify $8 billion in military sales to Saudi Arabia despite congressional objections.
A department official had argued the probe was outside Linick’s jurisdiction, according to a transcript of the former inspector’s interview with US lawmakers released on Wednesday.
In his June 3 testimony to three House and Senate committees, Linick said Under Secretary of State for Management Brian Bulatao told him his office "shouldn't be doing the work because it was a policy matter not within the IG's jurisdiction."
“I told him that, under the Foreign Service Act of 1980, it was within the IG purview to review how policy is implemented,” he said.
Linick had earlier confirmed that he was probing the controversial multi-billion-dollar arms sales to Saudi Arabia when he was abruptly relieved of his duties.
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