President Donald Trump. Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

The New York City Bar Association has called on Congress to investigate President Donald Trump's recent removal of two inspectors general and urged new protections to ensure the independence of government watchdogs.

In a letter to congressional leaders from the U.S. House and Senate, the City Bar's Task Force on the Rule of Law called Trump's abrupt firings an "affront to Congress" and federal laws establishing oversight mechanisms for Executive Branch agencies.

The letter followed Trump's decision earlier this month to fire Michael Atkinson as the inspector general of the U.S. intelligence community over his handling of an anonymous whistleblower complaint, which later became the basis for a congressional impeachment inquiry. Three days later, Trump replaced Glenn Fine as acting inspector general for the Department of Defense, and installed a replacement to oversee the distribution of $2 trillion in emergency federal funds under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.

In recent statements, the City Bar said, Trump had also suggested, without evidence, that Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General Christi Grimm was acting out of political motivation and hinted at her pending removal.

The letter, which also included a six-page report condemning the president's actions, claimed that Trump's removal Atkinson and Glenn flouted the Inspector General Act of 1978, which requires the president to provide Congress 30 days' notice prior to an inspector general's firing, as well as the written reasons explaining the decision. Trump has argued that he has broad authority as president to fire inspectors general as he sees fit and that his decisions are not subject to review by Congress.

The City Bar, however, said that Trump's attacks on the inspectors general were "extremely troubling, both in their immediate effects and in the message they send to the federal inspector general offices and to the public."

The report urged Congress to hold hearings to investigate the removals and called for legislation to bar any such actions from taking effect until 30 days after the president had notified Congress of the reasons for the removals. Those protections, the City Bar said, should also extend to anyone who is serving in an acting capacity.

"Those whose jobs involve oversight are working in difficult and often contentious positions, and are extremely vulnerable to abuse by those who do not necessarily want these jobs done, or who do not want them done with independence and transparency," task force chairman Stephen Kass wrote in the report.

"The president's attacks on IGs are also an attack on the institutions of our government that ensure accountability of our public officials," he said. "It is important, therefore, that Congress act promptly both to reform the IG Act in the manner recommended above and to take whatever other actions Congress finds appropriate to protect IG independence."

The City Bar, which has been vocal in its opposition to certain actions taken by the Trump administration, has also called for a Congressional probe of Attorney General William Barr over public statements that it said threatened the "public confidence in the fair and impartial administration of justice."

Last October, the group also called for Barr to recuse himself from any DOJ investigations pertaining to the Trump administration's dealings with Ukraine, after he was named in the whistleblower complaint alleging that Trump had pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to announce investigations into his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.

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