ZERO HEDGE - WAVE OF STATE DEPARTMENT PERSONNEL RESIGN, ARE FIRED AS TILLERSON TAKES CONTROL

Wave Of State Department Personnel Resign, Are Fired As Tillerson Takes Control

by Tyler Durden

Jan 27, 2017 3:09 AM

Update: according to a CNN report - so as always take with lots of salt - the story has shifted materially, because according to two senior administration officials, it wasn't a resignation by the State Department officials, but more of a termination: "the Trump administration told four top State Department management officials that their services were no longer needed as part of an effort to "clean house" at Foggy Bottom."

Patrick Kennedy, who served for nine years as the undersecretary for management, Assistant Secretaries for Administration and Consular Affairs Michele Bond and Joyce Anne Barr, and Ambassador Gentry Smith, director of the Office for Foreign Missions, were sent letters by the White House that their service was no longer required, the sources told CNN.

All four, career officers serving in positions appointed by the President, submitted letters of resignation per tradition at the beginning of a new administration. The letters from the White House said that their resignations were accepted and they were thanked for their service.

The White House usually asks career officials in such positions to stay on for a few months until their successors are confirmed.

"Any implication that that these four people quit is wrong," one senior State Department official said. "These people are loyal to the secretary, the President and to the State Department. There is just not any attempt here to dis the President. People are not quitting and running away in disgust. This is the White House cleaning house."

Mark Toner, the State Department's acting spokesman, said in a statement that "These positions are political appointments, and require the President to nominate and the Senate to confirm them in these roles. They are not career appointments but of limited term."

A second official echoed that the move appeared to be an effort by the new administration to "clean house" among the State Department's top leadership. "The department will not collapse," the second official said. "Everyone has good deputies. It's a huge institutional loss, but the department has excellent subordinates and the career people will step up. They will take up the responsibility."

Victoria Nuland, the State Department's assistant secretary for Europe, was also not asked to stay on.

The following org charts breaks out the unfilled appointee positions, in blue, while the red crosses show the resignations



FOR MORE ON THIS ARTICLE, PLEASE VISIT: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-26/entire-senior-management-team-state-department-just-resigned