Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin fired all members of the Pentagon’s advisory boards in a comprehensive move fueled by concerns that the Trump administration had made a series of last-minute appointments, Pentagon officials said on Tuesday.
The change affects several hundred board members who sit on about 40 advisory boards, including dozens of people who were appointed to the positions in the last days of former President Donald Trump’s term.
Among those laid off are highly party figures such as Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign manager, David Bossie, a former Trump deputy campaign manager, former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich and retired Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata. But instead of choosing Trump’s nominees, the change applies to all board members, including those nominated before Trump’s presidency.
“I am ordering the immediate suspension of all operations of the advisory committee until the review is completed, unless otherwise instructed by me or the Deputy Defense Secretary,” Austin said in a memo released Tuesday.
Advisory boards provide guidance to the Pentagon on politics, science, business and various other topics and members are not paid. To make way for new nominees, the Trump White House, in some cases, removed some longtime board members and replaced them with pro-Trump supporters.
“There is no doubt that the frantic activity that occurred with the composition of so many councils, only in the period from November to January, deeply worried the secretary and certainly helped to guide him to this decision,” said the Pentagon’s press secretary, John Kirby, to the journalists.
Austin decided that firing all members of the advisory boards and asking for a thorough review of their activities was the most just and effective way to address the issue, two Defense officials told reporters at a previous briefing.
In addition to ordering all board members to resign by February 16, Austin temporarily suspended council activity and ordered an elaborate review of all Department of Defense advisory boards to examine the role, usefulness and composition of these panels, from according to a memo released by the Pentagon.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the decision.