Republican Sen. Mitt Romny (Utah) on Saturday denounced President Trump’s firings of several inspector generals in various federal government offices as a “threat to accountable democracy.”

“The firings of multiple Inspectors General is unprecedented; doing so without good cause chills the independence essential to their purpose. It is a threat to accountable democracy and a fissure in the constitutional balance of power,” Romney tweeted. 

The firings of multiple Inspectors General is unprecedented; doing so
without good cause chills the independence essential to their purpose. It is a threat to accountable democracy and a fissure in the constitutional balance of power.

— Senator Mitt Romney (@SenatorRomney) May 16, 2020

The senator’s comments come as Democrats in the upper chamber announced that they launched a probe Saturday into the president’s removal of the State Department’s inspector general Steve Linick, alleging the dismissal was politically motivated.

Late Friday evening Trump informed Congress he was preparing to fire Linick from his post. It is the latest of several firings of oversight officials Trump has ordered since he was acquitted in the Senate during his impeachment trial in February.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) said reports indicate that Pompeo personally made the recommendation for the president to fire Linick to disrupt an investigation into the secretary himself. 

Romney was the sole Republican in the Senate to deviate from his party and vote to convict Trump on one of the two charges of impeachment brought against Trump by House Democrats. 

Trump has since targeted Romney, and the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., has even called for the Utah senator to be ousted from the Republican party.