Trump Firings of Inspectors General Violated Federal Law, Pentagon and VA Watchdogs Say in New Lawsuit

The inspectors general for the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, as well as six other federal agency watchdogs fired by President Donald Trump days after he took office, have filed a lawsuit against the president and his administration in an effort to get their jobs back, according to a Wednesday court filing.

The IGs allege that Trump failed to notify Congress about the firings at least 30 days before they occurred and did not provide a "substantive, case-specific rationale" for the terminations as required by federal law, according to the filing.

The lawsuit further alleges that the president's firings have "inflicted substantial damage on the critical oversight ethos of transparency" and that the IGs' integrity has been "baselessly maligned" publicly to incorrectly imply that they have committed wrongdoing.

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"The purported firings violated unambiguous federal statutes -- each enacted by bipartisan majorities in Congress and signed into law by the president -- to protect inspectors general from precisely this sort of interference with the discharge of their critical, nonpartisan duties," the court document said.

The lawsuits by the former IGs -- who are charged with identifying and rooting out government waste, fraud and abuse -- are among dozens of others filed in the wake of Trump's early and sweeping executive actions meant to gut the federal government in the name of efficiency.

The New York Times reported that the White House told as many as 17 IGs that they would be fired due to "changing priorities."

The plaintiffs include not only the former IGs of the Pentagon and VA, but Health and Human Services, State Department, Department of Agriculture, Department of Education, Department of Labor and the Small Business Administration.

The filing requests a court injunction to allow them to return to those jobs after the Trump administration pulled their access to email accounts, computer systems, government phones and ID cards, and "physically disabled" them from entering the buildings where they worked.

The IGs, some of whom served during Trump's first term, such as Michael Missal of the Department of Veterans Affairs, said that they are nonpartisan officials who head independent watchdogs of the federal government that audit waste, fraud and abuse, not only saving the American taxpayers billions of dollars but also safeguarding national security, helping put fraudsters in prison and having "helped to end mistreatment of some of the nation's most vulnerable citizens," to include veterans, according to the filing.

The filing cited the Inspector General Act of 1978 as the law that requires the president to notify Congress of IG firings at least 30 days in advance. Trump followed that law and provided notice in his first term when he fired the State Department inspector general in 2020.

Robert Storch, who was the Pentagon inspector general before his firing two weeks ago, was appointed by Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate in 2022. Prior to his work at the DoD, he was the IG for the National Security Agency, having been nominated by Trump for that position.

At the DoD, he oversaw the release of 281 reports, made more than 970 recommendations for improvement to the Pentagon's various systems and policies, and "delivered a 'monetary impact' of over $10.8 billion," according to the court filing.

Since 2016, Missal's VA IG office made nearly 2,500 reports, 10,000 recommendations and "delivered a monetary impact of over $45 billion" to VA programs, policies and operations, the filing said.

Meanwhile, Trump has tasked Elon Musk -- who himself has billions of dollars in various federal contracts including with the Department of Defense -- to root out government waste and fraud via his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

The White House said that Musk would not be required to file a public financial disclosure, which would have allowed the public to scrutinize his potential conflicts of interests, according to CNN, as Musk insisted his team would be transparent about their efforts during a press gaggle in the Oval Office with Trump on Tuesday.

The same day, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that he will "welcome DOGE to the Pentagon," adding that he believes it can find "billions of dollars" in savings within the military.

Military.com previously reported that Principal Deputy Inspector General Steven Stebbins and the deputy inspector general, David Case, would be stepping into the IG roles for the Pentagon and VA, respectively, until replacements are named.

Related: Watchdogs at Pentagon, VA Fired in Purge of Inspectors General Across Federal Government