The @StateOIG report released today offers new details on the 2017 removal of Lawrence Bartlett, the @StateDept's refugee admissions director, from his position (he has since returned to that role) stateoig.gov/system/files/e…
.@ArshadReuters and I wrote about his removal in early 2018. By then, he had been assigned to the FOIA office, which an official described as a form of internal exile akin to being sent "to Siberia." reuters.com/article/us-usa…
The @StateOIG report doesn't name Bartlett, but he is clearly Employee Four 
The report makes clear that Christine Ciccone, who was then a senior @StateDept official and is now a senior @DHSgov official, ordered Bartlett's removal. She appears to have told investigators that she did not do so, but that was contradicted by witnesses/contemporaneous emails
.@StateOIG describes Ciccone's initial answers to them as "evasive," and says she stated AFTER seeing a draft of their report that yes, indeed, Tillerson had ordered Bartlett's removal
(Bartlett returned to his position a little more than a year after being removed, after Ciccone had left @StateDept) reuters.com/article/us-usa…
In the end, @StateOIG concludes it is unable to determine if Bartlett's removal was based on a permissible reason or not, partially because of Ciccone's answers and the lack of documentation for why he was moved.
Why does this matter, years after some of these actions first occurred? @nahaltoosi said it better than I can
@nahaltoosi One other VERY notable detail - the exact timing of Bartlett's removal, Oct. 23, 2017. That's the very moment the admin was rolling out significant changes to refugee policy (i.e. when you might want an experienced hand at the wheel to manage the changes) reuters.com/article/us-usa…
@nahaltoosi Finally, this is deep in the weeds but I am curious as to what DHS objections Henshaw is referring to here. My later reporting showed that some objections came from the White House, over allowing in Somalis (2nd screenshot is from my story) reuters.com/article/us-usa…
Good context here:
