Mark Greenblatt, a former inspector general of the Department of the Interior, described the moment he learned he had been fired in an interview on Monday.
“So, Friday night I got an email on my work phone, and I checked it,” Greenblatt told CNN’s Kasie Hunt. “And on there was, it said White House notification. And I knew that can’t be good.”
Greenblatt recalled when, in President Trump’s first administration, two inspectors general were fired, the news came on a Friday night. He recalled those as “Friday night massacres, at that time.”
“So those were Friday night, you know, Friday night massacres, at that time,” he said. “And so to get an email from the White House, saying White House notification on a Friday night at 7:30, I knew that couldn’t be good.”
“And so, I opened it up and there was a two-sentence email from the Director of Presidential Personnel that said, in light of changing priorities, you are, you know, terminated from your position at the, you know, Department of the Interior effective immediately, and thank you for your service,” Greenblatt continued.
Greenblatt, who was initially named to the position by Trump in 2019, was one of a numer of inspectors general ousted within government agencies late on Friday.
The ousted watchdogs came from the Defense Department, State Department, Energy Department, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and others.
Greenblatt said he has not had a chance to clean out his office and is unsure when he’ll have a chance to return.
“No, actually,” he said when asked about his office. “My email has been cut off and I don’t know what’s going to happen with my – with my things. I was there for five-and-a-half years. And so, we’ll see.”
Greenblatt said he does not know why he was removed. He said, as far as he knows, all inspectors general received similar emails citing “changing priorities” as the basis for their termination.
“No, I don’t know,” he said. “And all that was stated was the changing priorities, in that email, which I understand the other IGs who were removed, the 17 or 18 of us were still sifting through the rubble, frankly, to find out how many IGs were removed. But as far as I know, all of us got essentially the same email that said, changing priorities.”
