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Democrats in the U.S. Senate released on Tuesday a scathing review on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's tenure at the State Department.
The 46-page report, entitled "Diplomacy in Crisis: The Trump Administration's Decimation of the State Department," says during Pompeo's tenure, critical senior positions remain vacant without nominees, with 11 assistant secretary of under-secretary posts vacant or filled by acting officials.
The report attributes the difficulty of appointing key department posts to the fact that many of the nominees for national security posts "lack the character and fitness expected of U.S. diplomats, and their nominations, therefore, languish in the Senate."
Pompeo's State Department is also rife with "allegations of retaliation and reprisal," the report said, adding that the result is a State Department left feeling "besieged," "demoralized," "beaten," "mistreated," "paralyzed," and "at a new low."
The ouster of former State Department Inspector General Steve Linick in May, who was conducting investigations related to Pompeo at the time of his firing, "only compounded this reality," the report said.
U.S. President Donald Trump removed Linick at Pompeo's recommendation under the allegation that Linick and his office was leaking to the media.
According to CNN, however, a probe by the Pentagon inspector general found no evidence that the leakage was conducted, and Linick was cleared prior to his removal.
During his congressional hearing in early June, Linick said several senior aides to Pompeo were aware of then ongoing probes into whether Pompeo was using staff to run personal errands and the use of emergency legal powers to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates over congressional objections.
ABC News commented after that hearing that Linick's revelation "undercuts Pompeo's public comments that he was aware of only one probe and challenges his statement that Linick's firing was not retaliation for any investigation."
(CGTN)
