The State Department watchdog said in a new report that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s circumvention of Congress by way of an emergency declaration in order to sell $8.1 billion worth of arms to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates broke no laws.
Diana Shaw, who serves as the agency’s acting inspector general, said in an Aug. 10 report (pdf) capping a review of the State Department’s role in arms transfers to Saudi Arabia that Pompeo’s decision to fast-track weapons sales complied with federal law. The Office of the Inspector General did find, however, that the State Department did not do enough to prevent the weapons from being used by the Gulf nations to inflict mass deaths in Yemen.
