Posted by John Elwood:
UPDATE -- The White House Provides Further Detail On Walpin Firing And Confirms
Interpretation Of IG Act:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_06_14-2009_06_20.shtml#1245263014
Because of growing controversy over the firing of AmeriCorps IG Gerald
Walpin, the White House has proffered additional reasons (some might
say "reasons") why the President had lost confidence in him.
After Senator Claire McCaskill (D. Mo.) expressed [1]concern that
President Obama's Thursday letter saying that he had lost confidence
in Walpin did not satisfy the requirements of the Inspector General
Reform Act that the President provide "reasons" for the firing,
presidential aide Norm Eisen (who reportedly told Walpin to resign or
be fired) sent a [2]letter to Senators Joe Lieberman and Susan
Collins, the Chairman and ranking minority member on the Senate
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (with a copy to
McCaskill), outlining a number of reasons Walpin was let go. It read:
Mr. Walpin was removed after a review was unanimously requested by
the bi-partisan Board of the Corporation. The Board's action was
precipitated by a May 20, 2009 Board meeting at which Mr. Walpin
was confused, disoriented, unable to answer questions and exhibited
other behavior that led the Board to question his capacity to
serve. Upon our review, we also determined that the Acting United
States Attorney for the Eastern District of California, a career
prosecutor who was appointed to his post during the Bush
Administration, had filed a complaint about Mr. Walpin's conduct
with the oversight body for Inspectors General, including for
failing to disclose exculpatory evidence. We further learned that
Mr. Walpin had been absent from the Corporation's headquarters,
insisting upon working from his home in New York over the
objections of the Corporation's Board; that he had exhibited a lack
of candor in providing material information to decision makers; and
that he has engaged in other troubling and inappropriate conduct.
Mr. Walpin had become unduly disruptive to agency operations,
impairing his effectiveness and, for the reasons stated above,
losing the confidence of the Board and the agency. It was for these
reasons that Mr. Walpin was removed.
The Eisen letter defended the earlier, spare statement of reasons the
President sent last Thursday, saying it was consistent with past
practice and, as I [3]suggested in my earlier post, consistent with
the Executive Branch's reading of the statute:
We of course recognize your view of the requirements for the formal
notice letter which we submitted to Congress last week. That letter
was prepared based on long practice with respect to the form of
such letters and the Administration's view of the statute.
Walpin [4]denies it all, saying that the White House is "grasping at
nonexistent straws" to justify his termination.
In other news, based on the description of Walpin as "confused [and]
disoriented," he has been asked to take Ron Wood's spot playing guitar
the upcoming Rolling Stones tour. Although in the interests of
accuracy I should that I just now made that up. (And before you start
sending me vitriol-filled emails, note I'm a huge Stones and Woody fan
from way back.)
References
1. %E2http://mccaskill.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=314561&%E2
2.
%E2http://www.scribd.com/doc/16519782/Letter-from-Norm-Eisen-to-Senators-Lieberman-and-Collins?autodown=pdf%E2
3. %E2http://volokh.com/posts/1245168784.shtml%E2
4.
%E2http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Fired-AmeriCorps-IG-responds-White-House-charges-are-false-48257187.html%E2
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