The debate over Gerald Walpin, the inspector general fired by President Barack Obama, continues. Is he senile, an untrustworthy employee, or simply, a hero?
The latest from Washington is that President Obama has lost confidence in Walpin. For that reason, he is removing him from office.
As reported in the Huffington Post, "this follows the claims Walpin made accusing Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, an Obama supporter and former NBA basketball star, of misusing funds received from federal grants. Johnson and the nonprofit education academy that he founded is now agreeing to repay half of $847,000 in grants it received from AmeriCorps. Walpin told the Associated Press this week that, I know that I and my office acted with the highest integrity as an independent inspector general should act. He continues to assert, amid claims that he was confused, disoriented and unable to answer questions" at the 2009 board meeting of the Corporation for National and Community Service, the organization that oversees AmeriCorps, that he reported facts and conclusions in an honest and full way while serving as inspector general at the Corporation for National and Community Service.
Political Correspondent Byron York reports that Walpin investigations into fraud were often frowned at by the board.
Walpin has said that the board didn’t like what he was doing in order to perform his duties as an IG. He claims, however, that is not a reason to remove him. The more diligent an IG is in reporting criticisms of the board and the running of the corporation, the more the board doesn’t want the IG there. But that’s exactly why the IG position was created.
Various news articles and interviews on CNN and Foxx News, indicate that it is Walpin’s aggressive investigation of the misuse of AmeriCorps funding by the California mayor and prominent Obama supporter Johnson that seems to have gotten him fired—questioning whether or not Walpin dismissal was justified by President Obama, who has seemingly violated his own policies governing the removal of inspector generals.
Walpin, a 1955 graduate of Yale Law School, served as a First Lieutenant in the Jag and was well known as a prominent United States Prosecutor, before he began his tenure in Washington.