From Watchdogs to ‘Lapdogs’: Inside the Trumpification of Agencies’ Inspectors General

The Veterans Affairs Department’s internal watchdog was set to relocate to a different Washington office space last year. That was until the inspector general decided she needed her own bathroom.

Cheryl Mason, who served as VA Secretary Doug Collins’ senior adviser before President Donald Trump fired the existing IG and tapped her to replace him, held up the move for months, citing the need for a personal lavatory in her office, three people familiar with the matter told NOTUS.

“She says that’s when people are at their most vulnerable moment,” and the lack of an en suite bathroom presented security concerns, an IG employee said. “They’re having to redesign the whole space.”

It’s the kind of potentially pricey request that government watchdogs typically investigate — and have in the past, like with former Housing Secretary Ben Carson’s office renovations in Trump’s first term.

The once-independent system that Congress established after Watergate has radically transformed in Trump’s second term. Trump’s unprecedented firing of nearly 20 inspectors general has unraveled the firewalls government’s ombudsmen have operated under for decades. The new watchdogs are erasing the lines between agency leadership and their own watchdog offices, Office of Inspector General employees told NOTUS, openly suggesting they should work hand-in-glove with the Trump administration to advance its goals.

More: https://www.notus.org/agencies/trumpification-agency-inspectors-general