OPINION | Mike Pompeo's disturbing actions

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Editor's Note: Frida Ghitis, a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist. She is a frequent contributor to CNN opinion, a contributing columnist for the Washington Post, and a columnist for the World Politics Review. Follow her on Twitter at @fridaghitis. The opinions expressed in this comment are those of the author. Read more opinion at CNNE.com/opinion.

(CNN) - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has made headlines in the wake of a stream of revelations so dramatic that they can even help President Donald Trump distract the public from his disastrous response to the pandemic.

Ironically, the Pompeo scandal was fueled by his own efforts - and those of his boss - to keep him quiet. His decision to get rid of the man accused of investigating any signs of embezzlement at the State Department has only managed to get attention, and the more we look, the more disturbing Pompeo's actions appear.

Investigations by various media allege a familiar pattern in the Trump administration: the possible abuse of power for personal gain; contempt and circumvention of accepted procedures, and a propensity to treat a government position as a personal fiefdom with little regard for both taxpayer money and common decency.

In short, it appears that Pompeo brought the swamp to Foggy Bottom.

On Wednesday, Pompeo ridiculed what he called "crazy" stories about him, with a satirical intervention mocking the reports: "Someone was walking my dog ​​to sell weapons to the dry cleaners," he said. The news is not so funny.

For starters, NBC News provided detailed evidence of approximately two dozen fancy dinners hosted by Pompeo and his wife Susan in State Department diplomatic reception rooms, all paid for by taxpayers, with guest lists that included more donors and activists. Republicans than foreign diplomats and policy experts (about 39% of the nearly 500 guests were from Fox News, NBC reported). But that is only part of the narrative that unfolds.

It became clear late last Friday that something worth hiding was brewing over Pompeo, when Trump announced his intention to fire State Department inspector general Steve Linick. Inspectors general are Senate-confirmed government officials charged with auditing and investigating possible cases of government fraud and abuse.

For that reason, they have come under relentless attack by a president who is at the center of so many corruption scandals that he needs a spreadsheet to track, paying tens of millions to settle fraud allegations in his Trump University and the violation of donation rules in the charity that governs its Trump Foundation (denies having acted badly in both cases), to name only one couple in an endless stream. Linick was the third late-night inspector general to be fired in six weeks, a slow Friday night massacre.

Pompeo acknowledged Wednesday that he asked Trump to fire Linick, but offered little explanation for the reason, other than that it should have happened sooner. He called the claims that the dismissal was retribution for probes in his activities "obviously false."

The law requires the president to give 30 days notice of IG's layoffs, so the announcement triggered the initial gun on Congressional investigations into Linick's firing.

Moments after the announcement, Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel, chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, dropped the first bomb, revealing that Linick was investigating Pompeo. Engel, with Senator Bob Menéndez, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, opened an investigation into the overthrow, denouncing "the politically motivated dismissal of the inspectors general and the evisceration by the president of these critical positions." NBC later reported that Linick was investigating Pompeo's use of a political representative from the State Department for personal errands, such as walking his dog and picking up his clothes.

Within hours, the allegations became more troubling. Engel told CNN another possible reason for Linick's firing. It turns out that the inspector general was investigating the declaration of an "emergency" that Pompeo had cited a year ago as a reason to ignore the requirement that Congress approve a $ 8 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia.

Engel, who called the statement "false," said Linick was conducting an investigation into the statement at the request of his office. The New York Times reported that Pompeo had already answered written questions in that investigation.

But now there is more.

The NBC investigation identified the employee walking the dogs, whose name appeared in emails NBC reviewed regarding the Madison Dinner calls. The employee was the main link between the Pompeo office and the protocol office that organized the dinners. "Two administration officials told NBC News that Linick made some kind of consultation with the protocol office last week, before he was fired," NBC reported. "One of the officials said that Pompeo's office was notified." Was Linick also investigating Pompeo's dinners? That remains unclear.

Even if it were not, Americans will find the details fascinating and more than a little disturbing. The events, with their own logo engraved on State Department invitations, brought hundreds of people to the center of American diplomacy more than 20 times since Pompeo became Secretary of State.

Pompeo spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus told NBC that the dinners were "an opportunity to discuss the State Department's mission and the complex foreign policy issues facing our exceptional nation." But the guest list more closely suggests an opportunity to advance a political career within the Republican establishment.

Most came from the corporate world and conservative media, along with Republican-only Republican members of Congress. Among the cattle and dinners, and sent home with personalized party gifts, were Laura Ingraham of Fox News, Marjorie Dannenfelser, head of a prominent anti-abortion lobby, Bill Miller, head of a leading casino lobby group, former Major League Baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth, Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy, a leading conservative donor, and others, on a detailed mailing list reviewed by NBC.

Sources told NBC that the State Department collected information on each guest and that the information was sent to the private Gmail account of Susan Pompeo, the wife of the secretary of state. Whatever your reason for receiving the data, it amounts to a hidden treasure, should the secretary of state decide to run for a seat in the Kansas Senate, or for the president. If that's the purpose of dinners and email, it's a violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits most federal employees from using their position for partisan political activities.

You can recall, by the way, the time when a Trump-appointed federal watchdog, faithful conservative Henry Kerner, advised the president to fire adviser Kellyanne Conway for violating the Hatch Act. Because of his problem, Republicans in Congress tainted him at a hearing on the matter. ("Let me know when the jail sentence begins," Conway told a reporter. Trump called Kerner's assessment flawed, said "I find it very unfair" and that he had no intention of firing Conway.)

One of the most distinctive and damaging features of the Trump administration is its disdain for ethics and integrity in government. But another is his pattern of staining political appointees, his tattered reputation, a prospect that should worry Pompeo.

Donald Trump Mike Pompeo