Security Agents Escort USDA IG Out of Office for Defying Trump's Termination Orders

Leah Barkoukis | January 29, 2025 3:30 PM

The inspector general of the U.S. Department of Agriculture was escorted out of her office by security on Wednesday after she refused to leave following her dismissal by the Trump administration last week.

Phyllis Fong, one of the 17 watchdogs fired last week, told colleagues of her plan to stay, believing the Trump administration did not follow the correct protocols, Reuters reports.

The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency “has taken the position that these termination notices do not comply with the requirements set out in law and therefore are not effective at this time,” she wrote in an email to colleagues over the weekend.

Sen. Chuck Grassley has also said the administration did not give the proper 30-day notice of removal to Congress.

But the White House defended the move.

"It is the belief of this White House and the White House counsel's office that the president was within his executive authority" to do so, [White House Press Secretary Karoline] Leavitt said Tuesday.
Trump, she added, "is the executive of the executive branch, and therefore he has the power to fire anyone within the executive branch that he wishes to."
Leavitt then referenced a 2020 Supreme Court decision, Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which ruled that the CFPB's agency structure violates the separation of powers under the U.S. Constitution.
"I would advise you to look at that case, and that's the legality that this White House was resting on," Leavitt said.
Asked by the reporter whether the Trump administration believed its order would survive a lawsuit or court challenge from the former inspectors general, Leavitt responded affirmatively.
"We will win in court," she said decisively, before moving on. (Fox News)