The Need for Oversight: Inspectors General Under Scrutiny

Inspectors general have been called the most powerful public officials you’ve never heard of. They work inside federal agencies, exposing corruption and ferreting out waste, fraud and abuse. But they’re also vulnerable to removal at the whim of the president. Glenn Fine was the inspector general of the Department of Justice in the Clinton, Bush and Obama Administrations. He was also the acting inspector general of the Department of Defense from 2016 until 2020, when he was replaced by former President Trump as part of a series of firings that the Washington Post called a “slow-motion Friday night massacre.” We talk to Fine about the role inspectors general play in holding the federal government to account and why he thinks they need more protection. Fine’s new book is “Watchdogs.”

Guests:

Glenn Fine, inspector general, Department of Justice (2000-2011); acting inspector general, Department of Defense (2016-2020) - author, "Inspectors General and the Battle for Honest and Accountable Government"

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