{"id":2678,"date":"2026-06-22T11:09:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T11:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=2678"},"modified":"2026-06-22T11:09:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T11:09:11","slug":"trumps-federal-watchdogs-are-doing-the-job-past-igs-let-slide-and-the-old-guard-hates-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=2678","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s federal watchdogs are doing the job past IGs let slide \u2014 and the old guard hates it"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A former federal inspector general has been sniping at President Donald Trump\u2019s approach to rooting out government fraud \u2014 but his complaints sound less like a serious defense of oversight and more like a bitter kiss-off from a spurned ex-bureaucrat.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe watchdogs have crossed a dangerous line,\u201d Mark Greenblatt intoned in the Daily Beast. \u201cThey\u2019ve become lapdogs\u201d \u2014 \u201cMAGA lapdogs,\u201d as his headline put it.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s furious that my inspector general colleagues and I are joining the wide-ranging effort, led by Vice President JD Vance, to crack down on the fraud that\u2019s looting our national treasury.<\/p>\n

Greenblatt\u2019s argument rests on a flawed premise: He claims that supporting such a mission somehow prevents an inspector general from conducting independent oversight.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s nonsense.<\/p>\n

The Inspector General Act, which established the job I hold at the Labor Department, does not require blindness to policy priorities.<\/p>\n

It requires independence in conducting audits, investigations and oversight.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a significant difference between supporting efforts to protect taxpayer dollars and compromising investigative integrity.<\/p>\n

Apparently, that distinction escapes Greenblatt.<\/p>\n

In fact, rooting out waste, fraud and abuse is precisely what inspectors general are supposed to do.<\/p>\n

My office has aggressively pursued pandemic-era unemployment fraud, identifying hundreds of millions of dollars in recoverable taxpayer funds and freezing suspicious accounts.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve launched investigations that have resulted in arrests, prosecutions and recovery efforts nationwide.<\/p>\n

None of that has compromised a single investigation.<\/p>\n

In fact, our investigative work has expanded \u2014 because we refuse to sit on the sidelines issuing academic critiques while criminals steal from hard-working Americans.<\/p>\n

Greenblatt seems particularly disturbed that I\u2019m working side by side with Keith Sonderling, the Labor Department\u2019s acting secretary, and actively participating in Vance\u2019s White House Fraud Task Force.<\/p>\n

He presents collaboration as evidence of political capture.<\/p>\n

Yet Americans expect<\/em> government agencies and officials to coordinate and collaborate when confronting major problems like the historic levels of fraud we\u2019ve uncovered.<\/p>\n

Isolating IGs from operational discussions simply to preserve the appearance of independence is exactly the type of outdated thinking that allowed hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to disappear in the first place.<\/p>\n

My responsibility is not to protect Washington traditions \u2014 but to protect taxpayers.<\/p>\n

That means sitting at the table when solutions are being developed.<\/p>\n

It means working with agency leaders when reforms are needed.<\/p>\n

It means collaborating with the vice president\u2019s task force when coordinated enforcement can help recover stolen funds.<\/p>\n

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And it means retaining complete independence when audits, investigations or prosecutions require scrutiny of anyone \u2014 regardless of title, position or political affiliation.<\/p>\n

Before entering public service, I spent nearly two decades as a highly decorated NYPD detective.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My job was simple: follow the facts, find the suspects, embrace technology and build the case.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Criminals don\u2019t wear political labels, and investigators don\u2019t ask about party affiliation before pursuing the truth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That mindset shaped my career in law enforcement and continues to guide every decision I make as an IG.<\/p>\n

The reality is simple: independence is measured by actions.<\/p>\n

My office follows evidence wherever it leads.<\/p>\n

We conduct criminal investigations, execute audits, issue public reports and make findings based on facts.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t check polling data before issuing subpoenas, or seek permission before exposing failures.<\/p>\n

In fact, one of my office\u2019s first significant actions under my leadership was opening an investigation involving now-former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer.<\/p>\n

She was Trump\u2019s appointee and ally, yet we proceeded because the facts warranted review and because independence requires following the evidence.<\/p>\n

What frustrates some members of the old watchdog establishment is not that this administration\u2019s IGs are less independent; it\u2019s that we\u2019re more effective.<\/p>\n

For too long, government oversight meant nothing but reports that gathered dust and recommendations that were ignored.<\/p>\n

But Americans want results.<\/p>\n

They want stolen money recovered and fraudsters prosecuted.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

They want accountability.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s exactly what we are delivering.<\/p>\n

Perhaps if Greenblatt had been doing the job Americans expected him to do, we wouldn\u2019t find ourselves still digging out from the rampant, unchecked fraud of the Biden administration. <\/p>\n

But while he\u2019s lamenting change, others are busy finding fraud, protecting taxpayers and restoring public trust through action.<\/p>\n

Anthony D\u2019Esposito, the Labor Department\u2019s inspector general, represented Nassau County in the US House of Representatives<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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The old watchdog establishment is squawking about President Trump’s IGs \u2014 not because we’re less independent, but because we’re more effective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump's federal watchdogs are doing the job past IGs let slide \u2014 and the old guard hates it - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=2678\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump's federal watchdogs are doing the job past IGs let slide \u2014 and the old guard hates it - 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