Obama Admin “Scrambled” To Find Excuse For Firing Gov Inspector Who Unveiled Corruption

The firing of Inspector General Gerald Walpin shortly after he had uncovered corruption and scandal involving Americorps and Obama supporter (and former NBA star) Kevin Johnson has been a festering bit of ugliness for the White House for a while now. Apparently Johnson used taxpayer money appropriated to Americorps to pay off young girls he’d either had sex or had propositioned for sex.
And now comes to light evidence that the Obama administration scrambled to find an excuse for having fired Walpin for exposing this corruption after they’d already fired him.
See, they had a reason for firing him. He was uncovering corruption and scandal involving someone close to Obama. They just needed to formulate a reason they could talk about publicly.

The new documents show the White House scrambling, in the days after the controversy erupted, to put together a public explanation for the firing. On June 11, less than 24 hours after Walpin received the call from Eisen, the board held a conference call. The next day, Ranit Schmelzer, who is part of the corporation’s press office, sent an email to board members giving them talking points to use if contacted by reporters seeking information about the matter.
“Indicate that you support the president’s decision to remove IG Walpin,” was Schmelzer’s first instruction to the board. Then: “If asked why he was removed, indicate that the president lost confidence in Mr. Walpin.” And then: “If the reporter continues to press, say that you can’t get into details on a personnel matter, but you understand there were some performance-based issues.” Finally, Schmelzer advised the board to avoid “getting into any specifics about IG Walpin’s performance-based issues. The WH has stayed away from this and has counseled us to do the same.”
The next day, June 13, after having instructed board members that the correct answer was to express support for the firing, the White House, for the first time, solicited the members’ actual views on the matter. In an email to the board headlined “Time-sensitive request from White House Counsel re IG matter,” corporation general counsel Frank Trinity wrote, “I was just contacted by Elana Tyrangiel, Associate Counsel to the President, seeking your assistance in responding to questions from members of Congress about President Obama’s removal of Gerald Walpin as inspector general. Specifically, the White House Counsel’s office would like to compile statements from board members and CNCS staff who were present at the inspector general’s presentation to the board immediately before the public board meeting last month.” Trinity said each member would receive a call from White House lawyer Tyrangiel, who “will prepare statements for your review for accuracy.”
The mention of Walpin’s “presentation to the board” was a reference to a May 20 board meeting that played a key part in the White House’s evolving explanations for Walpin’s firing. After initially explaining that President Obama no longer had the “fullest confidence” in Walpin, the White House later changed its story to say that Walpin, who was 77 years old at the time, had become “confused, disoriented [and] unable to answer questions” at the May 20 meeting. Later, the White House cited other “performance-based” issues. But Republican investigators concluded that the key motive behind the firing was unhappiness with Walpin’s aggressive investigation of misuse of AmeriCorps funds by Kevin Johnson, the mayor of Sacramento, California who is a prominent political ally of President Obama.

Chicago politics.
Hope and change.