Investigation Finds Political Purge Inside Trump’s State Department

President Donald Trump has certainly made no secret of his dislike for government employees who haven’t gone full MAGA with their effusive praise of the president. And apparently some of his appointees feel the exact same way. A new report from the State Department’s Office of the Inspector General released Thursday chronicles rampant mismanagement and “mistreatment of career employees” at the department’s Bureau of International Organization Affairs by Assistant Secretary of State Kevin Moley and former senior adviser Mari Stull, who were both Trump appointees. The report found evidence of “disrespectful and hostile treatment of employees,” “retaliation associated with conflicts of interest,” taking personnel actions with “improper motives”—and, naturally, “harassment” of career employees who were not believed to be sufficiently loyal to Trump.

Per the I.G.’s findings, Stull and Moley were reportedly openly hostile to career employees who were holdovers from the Obama administration, making “inappropriate accusations of disloyalty.” Stull, employees told the Inspector General, would call employees “Obama holdovers,” “traitors,” or “disloyal,” and allegedly accused certain employees of “being part of the ‘Deep State.’” The two appointees reportedly based their opinions of employees on their “perceived political views,” with Stull allegedly only making positive comments about certain career employees “because they reportedly made contributions to Republican candidates.” And Stull wasn’t afraid to act when she believed employees didn’t share her political beliefs. In one example described in the report, Stull took away many of one employee’s job responsibilities after they accompanied members of the Congressional Black Caucus to the United Nations, seemingly largely because the delegation “consisted of only Democratic members.” Stull “accused the employee of trying to ‘thwart’ President Trump and undermine his agenda,” the report details.

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In another instance, Stull allegedly cancelled a job selection process for a position seemingly because she believed the leading candidate was not “trustworthy,” due to their work with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and “relationship with the gay and lesbian community.” Shortly after that episode, Stull reportedly met with the Joint Executive Office and asked that “descriptions for all future vacancies should ‘reflect President Trump’s agenda’ and … ‘require conformance to the President’s beliefs.’” (The officials informed Stull that they “could not carry out her instructions.”)

Stull and Moley’s mismanagement went beyond their political biases. The report also describes them as having “frequently berated employees, raised their voices, and generally engaged in unprofessional behavior toward staff”—in one instance, Stull reportedly “called [an employee’s] work product ‘garbage’ and threw it at another employee”—and dismissed one employee without merit after they raised concerns about the officials’ behaviors. Stull also allegedly “retaliated” against career employees with whom she disputed in her previous position at the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization. Though higher-up State Department officials raised concerns about Stull’s behavior after it was first reported by Foreign Policy and asked Moley in June 2018 to make certain reforms, the report notes “the hostile treatment and other conduct described above continued into the fall of 2018.”

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The mismanagement led to a mass exodus of career staff at the bureau, with the report finding that 50 out of 300 domestic employees left since Moley was instated. “Nearly all” of the former employees the I.G.’s office interviewed “stated that poor leadership of the bureau contributed to their decision to depart.” Stull, who stepped down from her position in January, has yet to respond to the allegations, while Moley has disputed their accuracy. “The behavior attributed to me regarding raising my voice, berating employees and contributing to a hostile work environment does not represent who I am or who I have ever been,” Moley told NBC News.

Democrats have responded with outrage to the report’s findings, which House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings said “leaves no doubt that Trump Administration political appointees have mismanaged the Department and violated the public trust.” “Today’s report confirms what we feared: ‘disrespectful and hostile’ treatment of career employees at the State Department, including spurious accusations that public servants were ‘disloyal’ and improper retaliation against them,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Rep. Eliot Engel said in a statement, calling on Moley to resign or be dismissed. A State Department official told the Hill that the department accepted the report’s recommendations, which call for a “corrective action plan” to address the mismanagement and for the State Department “to consider other appropriate action, including disciplinary action.”

The report comes amid a particular period of turmoil for career officials within the Trump administration. The president’s open preference for officials to be Trump lackeys recently forced the resignation of Deputy Director of National Intelligence Sue Gordon, a widely-respected career official whom Trump nevertheless refused to let replace departing DNI head Dan Coats. Trump’s U.S. Department of Agriculture, meanwhile, is currently facing a mass exodus of scientists and other career experts thanks to a controversial decision to move the department to Kansas City. Critics have derided the move as an effort to force out scientists—who aren’t exactly Trump’s biggest fans—and “drain the swamp.”

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Earlier in August, Chuck Park, a U.S. Foreign Service official at the State Department, resigned from the Trump administration with a Washington Post op-ed, in which he said that while Trump supporters may accuse career officials like him of being “Deep State,” he considered himself to be a part of the “Complacent State” instead. “The Complacent State sighs when the president blocks travel by Muslim immigrants; shakes its head when he defends Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman; averts its gaze from images of children in detention camps. Then it complies with orders,” Park wrote. “I let career perks silence my conscience. I let free housing, the countdown to a pension and the prestige of representing a powerful nation overseas distract me from ideals that once seemed so clear to me. I can’t do that anymore.”