James Mattis, former defense secretary, defends Pentagon IG fired by Trump

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Mattis: Trust is the coin of the realm for any leader

Former Secretary of Defense Gen. James Mattis discusses leadership, his new book 'Call Sign Chaos' on 'The Story.'

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Former Defense Secretary James Mattis went on record Tuesday to defend Glenn Fine, the Pentagon inspector general relieved of his duties by President Trump earlier in the day.

“Mr. Fine is a public servant in the finest tradition of honest. Competent governance,” Mattis wrote in an email to Yahoo News. “In my years of extensive engagement with him as our Department of Defense’s acting Inspector General, he proved to be a leader whose personal and managerial integrity were always of the highest order.”

Mattis, 69, a retired U.S. Marine Corps general, served as defense secretary from January 2017 to January 2019 – resigning after the president announced plans to pull U.S. troops from Syria.

TRUMP REMOVES INSPECTOR GENERAL POISED TO OVERSEE CORONAVIRUS STIMULUS FUNDS

But in a “Fox & Friends” interview last September, Mattis denied reports that he had a “tense” relationship with the president.

“The president is a forthright man and so am I,” Mattis said at the time. “I would meet with him weekly. There was nothing going on that I wasn’t open with him about. That’s the way I deal with my boss anywhere I have ever been.”

Fine was chairman of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, a panel of inspectors general charged with allocating the $2 trillion in coronavirus relief funding that Congress recently approved and that Trump signed into law.

The president temporarily assigned Sean O'Donnell, inspector general from the Environmental Protection Agency to take Fine's position, Yahoo News reported.

Fine’s removal came as House Democrats were making plans to investigate the Trump administration’s handling of the federal coronavirus response.

Prior to serving at the Pentagon, Fine was inspector general at the Justice Department for 11 years, Yahoo News reported.

The president’s move also came just days after he fired Michael Atkinson, the inspector general for the U.S. intelligence community who had brought the Ukraine whistleblower’s concerns to the attention of Congress, leading to Trump’s impeachment last year. (The president was ultimately acquitted in February.)

Michael Bromwich, a former inspector general at the Justice Department, shared his view on why Trump ousted Atkinson and Fine.

“Trump has woken up to the fact that IGs pose a threat to him,” said Bromwich, who once hired Fine and praised his work at the Pentagon, according to Yahoo News.

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“This president has now changed the game,” Bromwich added. “It puts a huge cloud over IGs. … This is a president that resists any form of oversight.”

Also Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Donna Shalala, D-Fla., who served as secretary of Health and Human Services under former President Bill Clinton, criticized Trump’s removal of the two inspector generals.

“It is the one appointment he does not control,” Shalala told CNN on Tuesday about the job of inspector general. “It’s not that he can’t nominate them or fire them, but they get to report to Congress directly.”

Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Joshua Nelson contributed to this story.