'Walpin-Gate' Case Buried

The lawsuit brought by former Inspector General Gerald Walpin, whose dismissal by President Obama last year has been challenged by congressmen as potentially illegal political retaliation, has been dismissed in federal court.

U.S. District Judge Richard Roberts late last week dismissed Walpin's case, reasoning that the Inspector General Reform Act – a bill co-sponsored by then-Sen.Obama to keep inspectors general free from presidential political interference – gives Walpin no legal recourse for getting his job back, even if the president did fire him illegally.

As WND reported, the White House fired Walpin from his watchdog position over the Corporation for National and Community Services shortly after the inspector general exposed sexual misconduct and gross misappropriation of federal funds by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a prominent Obama supporter.

The IGRA, however, is supposed to grant inspectors general special protection from political interference or retaliation to ensure they are free to investigate waste and fraud, uninfluenced by political cronyism.

Walpin contends Obama provided neither sufficient cause nor notice in firing him, a violation of the specific provisions of the IGRA. And though the president has already nominated his replacement, the former inspector general sued to be reinstated.

Judge Roberts' opinion, however, argues the IGRA does not guarantee individual inspectors general "an enforceable right to continued employment," and therefore, Walpin has no standing to petition the court for his job back.

Furthermore, Roberts opined, "While Walpin complains that the president's rationale was insufficient, Walpin fails to show how the IGRA provides any sort of criteria that would allow a court to make that determination."

To simplify the language, the judge's 15-page opinion contends the IGRA is a law governing the relationship between Congress and the White House regarding inspectors general, not a law granting any protections to the inspectors general themselves. Therefore, the judge concludes, the IGRA requiresCongress, not the courts, to hold the president accountable.

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