State Department IG Looking Into Alleged Political Targeting of Career Workers

The State Department’s watchdog is “looking into” allegations that the agency is engaged in political targeting and other prohibited personnel practices, the office said Tuesday after whistleblowers sounded the alarm about unfair treatment. The inspector general’s office said it was probing the matter after two Democratic committee leaders sent a letter to Steve Linick, the IG, asking him to open an “immediate review” into alleged illegal activities that State employees told the lawmakers were taking place at the department. The whistleblowers told the offices of Reps. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., that they were being assigned to tasks unrelated to their normal, substantive duties because of work they had conducted under the Obama administration.