Housing regulator watchdog ousted, another in Trump’s ongoing replacement of acting inspectors general

The removal of the acting inspector general for the Federal Housing Finance Agency is the latest example of President Donald Trump replacing the agency watchdogs, as his administration increasingly targets independent oversight. 

On Monday, Reuters reported that acting FHFA IG Joe Allen was being removed after he shared information with the prosecutor’s office investigating New York Attorney General Letitia James for mortgage fraud and was planning to notify Congress that the agency was not cooperating with IG investigators. 

FHFA Director Bill Pulte has issued criminal referrals against several of Trump’s political opponents, including James, Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook and Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. 

Neither the agency or the White House has responded to a request for comment on the identity of the new acting IG. While the president is permitted to replace an acting IG, he is limited to selecting an official who is currently working in an IG office. 

It’s also unclear if Allen will return to his position as chief counsel to the FHFA IG. In other instances when the president has swapped out an acting IG, the individual being replaced has returned to their original position. 

Allen had been the acting IG at FHFA since April after the previous IG, Brian M. Tomney, left the agency. 

The context of Allen's removal is similar to what happened this summer at the Education Department’s OIG. Acting Education IG René Rocque was booted after informing Congress that officials were not cooperating with an investigation into workforce cuts at the department. 

“The removal of yet another acting inspector for the apparent crime of doing their job is a real problem for this country,” Mark Lee Greenblatt, former IG for the Interior Department who was fired by Trump in January along with 16 other watchdogs, said in a statement. “Same situation, different day. Independent oversight isn’t partisan. It’s patriotic.” 

Trump also has replaced the acting IGs at the departments of Commerce, Housing and Urban Development and Justice; although, the circumstances of these removals vary. 

Faith Williams, the director of the Effective and Accountable Government Program at the Project on Government Oversight, said the acting IG replacements damage trust in their oversight. 

“IGs need to be independent to do good work,” she said. “We are looking at a system now that is much weaker, and that has implications when it comes to uncovering waste, fraud and corruption.” 

In addition to firing 17 IGs at the start of his second term, Trump also has axed the watchdogs at the U.S. Agency for International Development and Export-Import Bank. And the Office of Management and Budget has blocked funding since the start of the fiscal year to a central support and oversight entity for federal IGs.