Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ordered officials in the State Department to find a justification for the emergency authorization he had already decided to invoke to speed up an $8 billion arms deal with several Middle Eastern nations and conceal it from scrutiny, CNN reports. The May 2019 authorization was a problem in search of a solution, as department personnel had to assume that the secretary would make the emergency authorization and then devise a reason he was allowed to do so. Arms deals without emergency authorization require 30 days for congressional review and may not go through. The State Department’s inspector general was investigating Pompeo’s conduct, but President Donald Trump announced the watchdog’s firing last week at Pompeo’s request.
