The Trump administration launched at least dozens of federal surveillance late Friday evening, an illegal move that could face court challenges.
Speaking from the Senate floor on Saturday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the oversight body's firing “a chilling cleanse.”
“These extinguishments are Donald Trump’s way of telling us he is terrified of accountability and is hostile to facts and transparency,” said Schumer, a Democrat from New York.
The White House has not confirmed the shooting and did not respond to a BBC request for comment.
The affected inspectors general were sent emails from the presidential staff director overnight on Friday telling them that “due to a change in priorities, the position of inspector general is being terminated…effectively effective immediately,” according to CBS News, the BBC's US partner.
CBS said a group of oversight includes the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Inspector General of the Small Business Administration.
There were competing lists of absolute watchdogs, according to The New York Times. Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Housing, Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Transportation and Veterans Affairs, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, were reportedly considered.
Congress created the inspectors general in the wake of the Watergate scandal, as part of a wave of reforms aimed at reducing corruption, waste and fraud. Independent watchdogs — who operate within federal agencies but are not controlled by the head of those agencies — are supposed to act as a watchdog against mismanagement and abuse of power.
Although they hold the presidency, they are expected to be nonpartisan.
The shootings may have been in violation of a law that requires the White House to give Congress 30 days' notice and information about the case before denying it to the federal inspector general.
Hannibal Ware, inspector general of the Small Business Administration and head of the IEA's cross-agency board, sent a letter to Sergio Gore, head of the White House Office of Presidential Staff suggesting that the dismissals were invalid.
“I recommend reaching the White House's intended course of action,” Ware wrote. “At this point, we do not believe the actions taken are legally sufficient to remove Senate-confirmed inspectors general.”
Democrats were quick to criticize the president for the move.
Schumer said the move was a “preview of the lawless approach” Trump and his administration are taking.
Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat and ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, called the shooting a “Friday night coup” and “an attack on transparency and accountability.”
Some Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, have also expressed concern about the purge.
“I don't understand why one would fire individuals whose mission is to root out waste, fraud and abuse,” Collins said at the Capitol on Saturday. “I don't understand it.”
