In Cover-Up, Obama Fires Inspector General to Shield Crony and Waste Taxpayer Money

Obama is firing an inspector general, Gerald Walpin, who uncovered wrongdoing by a prominent Obama supporter and opposed letting him off the hook.

Ironically, when Obama recently nominated a liberal judge to the Supreme Court, his Administration trumpeted Walpin’s support for her.

Walpin is the Inspector General for the Americorps program, which is riddled with waste, fraud, and ideological misuse of taxpayer funds. Walpin “has been doing a good job” and he has “identified millions of dollars in AmeriCorps funds that were wasted or misspent,” notes Senator Grassley.

But when Walpin recently exposed wrongdoing by a prominent Obama supporter, Kevin Johnson, Obama moved to fire Walpin. Walpin protested the Administration’s failure to hold Johnson, a liberal mayor, accountable for using taxpayer money to pay for “political activities” and pay volunteers to run “personal errands for” Johnson “and even wash his car.”

Obama staffers and supporters are now falsely claiming that Walpin, whom the Obama Administration recently quoted as an authority (given his stature as a highly-respected former federal prosecutor and big-name law firm partner with clients across the political spectrum), is a right-wing nut (a ridiculous claim).

Walpin notes that although he uncovered massive wrongdoing by Johnson, it has led only to a sham settlement: $350,000 that is supposed to be paid back to the taxpayers never will be, since the entity that Johnson used to receive taxpayer money and spend it on himself now “is insolvent,” and its “settlement agreement was carefully drafted so that no obligation is imposed on” Johnson for that money, only the defunct entity he controlled. That’s so even though it was Johnson who used Americorps money to pay volunteers to “wash his car” and run “personal errands” for him.