One of the inspectors general who President Donald Trump fired earlier this year was Steve Linick, former IG for the U.S. State Department. The Project on Government Oversight has investigated Linick's firing and is reporting that according to its sources, the firing was "likely motivated in part by a review into alleged misconduct by the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, Robert Wood 'Woody' Johnson IV, a long-time friend of the president."
According to an article that POGO members Danielle Brian, Nick Schwellenbach and Adam Zagorin wrote for the organization's website, "(An) inspection report, which went to the London embassy for comment in late April, about two weeks before then-Inspector General Steve Linick's firing, has been sitting on the desk of his replacement — who unexpectedly announced Wednesday that he would be leaving his post Friday."
They note that the State Department's Office of Inspector General "examined allegations" that Johnson — owner of the New York Jets and an heir to the Johnson & Johnson business empire — has "made racist and sexist remarks in violation of anti-discrimination laws and rules."
A source described by Brian, Schwellenbach and Zagorin as someone "with knowledge of the operations of the London embassy," told POGO, "Ambassador Johnson was concerned that if the report were published, it would be damaging to his reputation…. The fact that Ambassador Johnson is given to sexist, inappropriate comments about women and their appearance is very widely known in the embassy because his comments were on a weekly, if not daily, basis. They are more than just racially insensitive, they're also offensive."
Johnson, however, has flatly denied making any racist or sexist comments. On July 22, the Johnson & Johnson heir tweeted, "I have followed the ethical rules and requirements of my office at all times. These false claims of insensitive remarks about race and gender are totally inconsistent with my longstanding record and values."
When Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testified before the U.S. Senate on July 30, he claimed that Linick was fired because of low employee morale in the State Department's Office of Inspector General. But Brian, Schwellenbach and Zagorin report, "The (State) Department's Office of Inspector General, in fact, had the third highest engagement score of any State subcomponent in 2019, according to the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service's analysis of Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey data from 2019."
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