Watchdog group suggests Biden fire Trump-appointed DHS inspector general

For four years, the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security, appointed by Donald Trump, has criticized Joe Biden’s administration for lax immigration enforcement. Now, a confidential watchdog report delivered to the White House on Wednesday is accusing the inspector general of abuse of authority and substantial misconduct — and it suggests the president fire him.

A panel of other inspectors general from across the federal government, after investigating DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari for years, has concluded that Biden should discipline him “up to and including removal.” The panel says Cuffari misused taxpayer money to retaliate against employees in his office who questioned his qualifications.

The panel’s conclusion and its suggestion that Cuffari be fired were first reported by POLITICO. House Oversight Committee Democrats later released the text of the report .

The panel that produced the report is a component of the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, a government group that trains and oversees inspectors general.

A White House spokesperson confirmed receipt of the report.

“The findings of misconduct in this report are concerning,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

Cuffari’s office did not respond to a request for comment. CIGIE declined to comment.

Each agency has an inspector general who acts as an internal auditor and has broad authority to investigate alleged malfeasance within the agency. But when inspectors general themselves are accused of misconduct, it falls to CIGIE (pronounced “Siggy”) to investigate.

The report says Cuffari spent $1.393 million in taxpayer dollars to have a private law firm investigate three members of his staff, “most likely for his ‘personal’ interest and in order to retaliate against them.” The staff members believed he was not qualified for the role, and a blizzard of allegations were lobbed back and forth between them and Cuffari. He brought on WilmerHale, the white-shoe law firm, to run an independent investigation. By the time they started, two of the staffers were no longer working in Cuffari’s office.

The report also said Cuffari misled Congress about his background during his confirmation process in 2019. According to the report, “the evidence strongly suggests” that he retired from a prior government job to avoid discipline –– but when he was being confirmed, he indicated that he had never left a job “by mutual agreement” following allegations of misconduct.

In a letter to Biden that accompanied the report, CIGIE’s Integrity Committee said Cuffari “abused his authority and engaged in substantial misconduct.”

“The Integrity Committee makes the following recommendation: Referred for appropriate action, up to and including removal,” the letter reads.

Firing Cuffari could spark outrage from Capitol Hill Republicans, who have praised him for investigating DHS’s trouble vetting people evacuated from Afghanistan and its inability to monitor all unaccompanied migrant children released from federal custody after traveling to the United States.

As CIGIE’s investigation into Cuffari has unfolded, congressional Republicans have rallied around him, suggesting he is being targeted as punishment for criticizing the administration. In an occasionally contentious July hearing, House Oversight Republicans pressed the head of CIGIE on how his office handles investigations into inspectors general and raised concerns about the Cuffari probe.

And two Senate Republicans, Rick Scott (R.-Fla.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), said whistleblowers told them the investigation into Cuffari was inappropriate and potentially politically motivated.

CIGIE is helmed, however, by a Trump-appointed inspector general, Mark Greenblatt. And the inspector general overseeing the Cuffari investigation, Eric Soskin, is also a Trump appointee.