CIA Inspector General Robin Ashton has announced she will retire at year's end. Bill O'Leary / The Washington Post / Getty Images
Intelligence IGs head for the exits ahead of Trump’s return
The president-elect fired five inspectors general during his first administration.
Two intelligence watchdogs are leaving their positions ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s second term.
Inspector General of the Intelligence Community Thomas Monheim and CIA IG Robin Ashton are set to depart around the start of the new year.
The news was first reported by the Project on Government Oversight.
Monheim has been serving in the position since 2020 when Trump fired his predecessor, Michael Atkinson, who drew White House condemnation after he alerted Congress in September 2019 — as required by law — to the whistleblower complaint that led to Trump’s first impeachment.
“On Nov. 13, I informed the president of my intent to resign as the inspector general of the intelligence community, effective Jan. 3, 2025. Serving as the IC IG has been a tremendous privilege and the pinnacle of my more than 30 years of military and civilian service spanning seven different presidents,” Monheim said in a statement to Government Executive. “I am incredibly proud of the IC IG team’s tireless and selfless efforts to conduct independent, objective and nonpartisan oversight of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and across the IC. As a result, the ODNI and the IC are better and the nation is safer.”
Over a span of six weeks in 2020, Trump fired five inspectors general, including Atkinson.
Ashton said that, after more than 38 years of public service, she would retire from the federal government at the end of the year.
“It has been the pinnacle of my rewarding career to serve alongside the dedicated officers at CIA for the last three and a half years as the CIA inspector general,” she said in a statement to Government Executive. “I have every confidence that the exceptional work of the Office of the Inspector General will continue to have a positive impact on behalf of the American people.”
Trump has nominated his former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe as CIA director and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, as DNI in his new administration. Some current and former intelligence officials have criticized Gabbard for her record of Russia-aligned public statements.