The American Pundit

The following assumes basic background knowledge of the Walpin firing case. If you have no clue as to who Walpin is, check out this primer from the Wall Street Journal.

The White House has claimed that Gerald Walpin was fired after it received numerous complaints from the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency that oversees AmeriCorps. Documents uncovered by Congressional Republicans exposes that claim as a lie. Walpin was fired at the behest of the board’s chair, an Obama donor.

Pressed for the reason Walpin was fired, Eisen told House and Senate aides that the White House conducted an “extensive review” of complaints about Walpin’s performance before deciding to dismiss him. According to the new report, Eisen told Congress that “his investigation into the merits of removing Gerald Walpin involved contacting members of the Corporation for National and Community Service [CNCS] board to confirm the existence of a ‘consensus’ in favor of removal.” But Republican investigators later discovered that during that “extensive review,” the White House did not even seek the views of the corporation’s board — the very people whose “consensus” purportedly led to Walpin’s firing.

Other than board chairman Alan Solomont, the Democratic mega-donor and Obama supporter who originally told the White House of his dissatisfaction with Walpin, “no member of the CNCS board had any substantive input about whether the removal of Gerald Walpin was appropriate,” according to the report. Only one other board member, vice-chairman Stephen Goldsmith, was even called by the White House, and that was on June 10, a few hours before Walpin was fired. According to the report, Goldsmith told investigators that “the White House had already decided to remove Walpin and wanted to confirm [Goldsmith's] support for the action.”

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.”

Which is all to say that Walpin was fired because he investigated a high-profile Democratic donor and Obama donor (Kevin Johnson) who was found illegally using taxpayer funds to pay his staff and wash his car. Johnson became mayor of Sacramento and wanted stimulus funds, but Walpin thought a man with a history of abusing taxpayer funds shouldn’t receive even more.

So, at the behest of another major Obama donor, the White House removed Walpin as inspector general of the Corporation for National and Community Service. Once the case was exposed the administration claimed it had consulted the board before coming to the decision, but records show the White House only contacting the Obama donor chairman before deciding to fire Walpin.

The White House misled Congress and the American public in order to cover up the fact it fired an inspector general, at the behest of a major Obama donor, for investigating another major Obama supporter. Will the left-wing media take note? Don’t count on it.