The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency has started to produce documents sought in a Freedom of Information Act request from Liberty Unyielding and the Bader Family Foundation.
That FOIA request was submitted on January 30 after President Trump fired 17 inspectors general. “In an email obtained by Reuters,” the Agriculture Department’s Inspector General “said the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) had ‘taken the position that these termination notices do not comply with the requirements set out in law and therefore are not effective at this time.'”
The FOIA request sought, among other things:
3. All memoranda sent on or after January 20, 2025, and before February 1, 2025 about
whether a termination notice to an inspector general or multiple inspectors general
complies with the requirements set out in federal law.
4. . All memoranda dated on or after January 20, 2025, and before February 1, 2025
about whether a termination notice to an inspector general or multiple inspectors general
complies with the requirements set out in federal law.
When CIGIE failed to produce records in response to the FOIA request, the Bader Family Foundation sued it on March 14. On May 6, CIGIE produced the memorandum found below.
That memorandum states:
January 24, 2025
Mr. Sergio Gor
Director of Presidential Personnel
The White House
Dear Mr. Gor:
I am writing in response to your email sent to me and other Inspectors General earlier this
evening wherein you informed each of us that “due to changing priorities, your position as
Inspector General . . . is terminated, effective immediately.”
As Chairperson of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), I
recommend that you reach out to White House Counsel to discuss your intended course of
action. At this point, we do not believe the actions taken are legally sufficient to dismiss
Presidentially Appointed, Senate Confirmed Inspectors General.
Specifically, based upon the 2022 amendments to the Inspector General Act of 1978, the
President must notify Congress 30 days prior to removal of an IG and provide “substantive
rationale, including detailed and case-specific reasons” for such removal. 5 U.S.C. § 403(b), as
amended by the section 5202(a) of the Securing Inspector General Independence Act of 2022
(Title LII, Subtitle A, of P.L. 117-263, 136 Stat. 2395, 3222). The requirement to provide the
substantive rationale, including detailed and case specific reasons, was added to better enable
Congress to engage on and respond to a proposed removal of an Inspector General in order to
protect the independence of Inspectors General.
Should you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me at [redacted]@sba.gov.
Sincerely,
Hannibal “Mike” Ware
CIGIE Chairperson
Cc:
Rand Paul, Chairman, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affiairs
Gary Peters, Ranking Member, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs
James Comer, Chairman, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
Gerald Connolly, Ranking Member, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform1750 H Street, NW ★ Suite 400 ★ Washington DC ★ 20006-3900
The memo above was enclosed with a cover letter which said:
May 6, 2025
Via Email
Hans Bader
hfb1@yahoo.comSubject: CIGIE Freedom of Information Request 6330-2025-069
Dear Mr. Bader:
This is a first interim response to the above-referenced Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) request to the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE).
CIGIE has partially completed its records search and has identified records that are responsive
to your request. Specifically, the requests numbered 3 & 4:
3. All memoranda sent on or after January 20, 2025, and before February 1, 2025 about
whether a termination notice to an inspector general or multiple inspectors general
complies with the requirements set out in federal law.
4. . All memoranda dated on or after January 20, 2025, and before February 1, 2025
about whether a termination notice to an inspector general or multiple inspectors general
complies with the requirements set out in federal law.
CIGIE FOIA staff processed the responsive record pursuant to FOIA and are providing
the 1 page discovered in our search, with the file name “CIGIE – Letter to White House –
1.24.2025 (002)_Redacted.” Redactions in the responsive records were applied pursuant to the
following FOIA exemptions:
Exemption 6 (5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(6)): allows Federal agencies the discretion to withhold
information the disclosure of which would “constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion…”
of individual privacy and might adversely affect the individual and his/her family.
This confirms that in applying this FOIA exemption, CIGIE considered the foreseeable
harm standard.
We also include the following link to a statement posted to the CIGIE website on January
25, 2025, that is still available to the public. Although it may not strictly speaking meet the
definition of “memoranda,” we attach the link below in the interests of transparency:
CIGIE Statement — 1_25_2025.pdfCIGIE is continuing to search for records that are responsive to your request. If you have
any questions, you may contact our FOIA Public Liaison, Aaron Lloyd, by email at
FOIASTAFF@cigie.gov. Additionally, you may contact the Office of Government Information
Services (OGIS) at the National Archives and Records Administration to inquire about the FOIA
mediation services they offer. The contact information for OGIS is as follows:
Office of Government Information Services
National Archives and Records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road-OGIS
College Park, Maryland 20740-6001
ogis@nara.gov
(202) 741-5770
(877) 684-6448 (toll free)
(202) 741-5769 (facsimile)
Sincerely,
Aaron Lloyd
Deputy General Counsel
FOIA Public Liaison
