A federal appeals court on Wednesday allowed the Trump administration to remove a top federal ethics watchdog from his office while a lawsuit challenging his termination plays out.

The order permitting the removal of Hampton Dellinger as head of the Office of Special Counsel came four days after a federal district court judge ruled that President Donald Trump’s attempt to boot Dellinger was “unlawful, and as the special counsel opposes the terminations of probationary employees throughout the government by the Trump administration.

Three watchdogs that are conservative, left-wing, and nonpartisan, respectively, explained to the Washington Examiner what they would like House Republicans to investigate in the next Congress.

A government watchdog group filed a lawsuit against President Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and the White House on Tuesday to prevent them from destroying records during his remaining time in office.

Why it matters: The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and other groups allege in their suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, that Trump and his administration are violating the Presidential Records Act by failing to properly preserve records of official government business.

A government watchdog group is suing President Trump, his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, and the White House to prevent the deletion of official emails and WhatsApp messages before they can be archived.

The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), among other plaintiffs, filed a lawsuit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The lawsuit accuses the president and the White House of violating the Presidential Records Act (PRA) by not correctly preserving records of official government business.

A coalition of historical and government watchdog groups are suing the White House and President Trump over concerns that records from his presidency will be lost or destroyed in violation of federal law.

The lawsuit from the National Security Archive, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, American Historical Association and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington seeks to prevent Mr. Trump from destroying any records during his final weeks in office.

The top two officials at the Department of Homeland Security, acting Secretary Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli, the senior official performing the duties of deputy secretary, are not legally qualified to hold those positions, a government watchdog concluded Friday.

The IRS sent stimulus checks to more than 1 million people who had died because it initially believed it did not have the legal authority to withhold them, according to an independent watchdog.

The administration later reversed itself, and began trying to block payments going to the dead while asking survivors to return those that did slip through, the Government Accountability Office said in an analysis released Thursday.

The report does not say what prompted the agency to reverse course, when it decided to change direction or who made the decision.

More than 1 million deceased Americans received stimulus payments totaling over $1 billion, according to a government watchdog agency in a report released to Congress on Thursday.

The payments were granted under the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act to help tide Americans over as the pandemic ripped through the country and forced the economy to a halt. The payments totaled as much as $1,200 to individual taxpayers and $2,400 for married couples filing jointly. The government granted an additional $500 per qualifying child under the age of 17.

The Internal Revenue Service sent out 1.1 million stimulus checks to dead people totaling $1.4 billion, according to a new report from a government watchdog agency.

As the IRS hurried to process direct payments to Americans reeling from the coronavirus outbreak, the Government Accountability Office said the tax agency didn’t use Social Security death records to filter out payments to the deceased.

The State Department inspector general fired by U.S. President Donald Trump last month has confirmed that at the time of his dismissal his office was investigating alleged misuse of department resources by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his wife, Susan Pompeo, according to a transcript released by Democratic lawmakers.

The newly released interview is certain to ramp up public pressure on Pompeo to explain his recommendation to Trump that he sack Steve Linick last month.