The State Department inspector general whom President Donald Trump fired last week was reportedly investigating why Secretary of State Mike Pompeo fast-tracked more than $8 billion in weapons to Saudi Arabia and its allies and whether Pompeo made a staffer run personal errands for him.
Steve Linick, a career State Department official who has served as the agency’s inspector general since 2013, was probing the arms deal because of lawmakers’ frustration that it was carried out without normal congressional oversight, Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told The Washington Post on Monday.
Pompeo used an emergency declaration from Trump to transfer the weapons to the Saudis, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan in May 2019. Weeks later, a handful of Republicans voted with congressional Democrats to stop the sale and Trump vetoed the legislation. Linick had recently briefed the State Department on the results of his inquiry into the administration’s claim that national security concerns justified its approach, congressional aides told the Post. Democrats have highlighted the role of a then-State Department official who was previously a lobbyist for Raytheon, a major weapons producer, in rolling out the emergency declaration.
“It’s troubling that Secretary Pompeo wanted Mr. Linick pushed out before this work could be completed,” Engel told the outlet. | 
