But the State Department's first Senate-confirmed inspector general in five years, who came into office six months after Mrs. Clinton exited, is showing that he is not afraid to criticize the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination ex post facto.
Inspector General Steve Linick, the new sheriff at Foggy Bottom, also has taken on one of Mrs. Clinton's closest aides, Huma Abedin, in a pay dispute.
In the process, the new IG has paved the way for a nasty turf battle between the intelligence community and the State bureaucracy: The two have squabbled over who controls the review of Mrs. Clinton's stash of 30,000 privately maintained emails, some of which hold the nation's secrets.
Mr. Linick, a career federal prosecutor and former IG at a federal housing agency, took over in 2013 from Acting Inspector General Harold Geisel, who was not Senate-confirmed and remained in place during Mrs. Clinton's entire tenure.
A longtime Foreign Service officer and former ambassador in President Bill Clinton's administration, Mr. Geisel maintained links to State's upper echelon -- a relationship that stirred criticism from a nonprofit watchdog, the Project on Government Oversight (POGO).
"A confirmed IG is usually in a better position to expose and correct the most challenging -- and, at times, controversial -- problems that confront his agency," said Michael Smallberg, a POGO investigator. "Unlike an acting watchdog, a confirmed IG can't be easily replaced, and doesn't need to audition with agency leaders for the permanent role. The mere perception that an acting IG is too cozy with agency leaders can greatly damage the office's credibility in the eyes of whistleblowers, Congress and other important stakeholders."
Mr. Linick arrived with no State Department credentials, just a resume of conducting criminal investigatio.
Mr. Linick won't have to worry about IG coordination btwn Foggy Bottom and the CIA. Champ has yet to nominate a CIA Inspector General.