Speaker Nancy Pelosi sharply rejected Miller’s selection, saying the new watchdog must have independence from the White House.

“The President’s nomination of one of his own lawyers clearly fails that test,” Pelosi said Saturday in a statement.

“Clearly and sadly, the President intends to double down on his signing statement promise to disregard key oversight provisions that hold the Administration accountable to the law,” Pelosi continued, adding that it redoubled her urgency to create a House committee solely focused on real-time oversight of the coronavirus funds.

"No one who has served in this WH or any WH should be eligible to serve in this role," tweeted Michael Bromwich, a former Justice Department inspector general. "The job requires complete independence from politics. This nomination should be dead on arrival."

One government watchdog group, the Project on Government Oversight, praised the pick.

“This is GOOD NEWS,” tweeted Danielle Brian, the group’s executive director. “Brian is serious.”

Prior to becoming the GSA inspector general, Miller was a senior adviser to the deputy attorney general in the second Bush Justice Department, and he also was an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Trump used his late Friday announcement to fill out the ranks of the inspectors general in his administration, indicating his intent to appoint new watchdogs for the CIA, Department of Education, Tennessee Valley Authority and Pentagon, where Fine — a former longtime Justice Department inspector general — had been serving in an acting capacity.

Trump's pick for the CIA, Peter Thompson, is a white-collar criminal defense attorney who previously worked as a Justice Department prosecutor for more than two decades. His pick for the DOE, Andrew De Mello, is a trial attorney for the Justice Department's Tax Division and has been detailed to the Homeland Security Department's inspector general since last year.

The president's pick to succeed Fine at the Pentagon, Jason Abend, is a senior policy adviser to Customs and Border Protection. And Trump's pick for the TVA, Katherine Crytzer, is an acting deputy assistant attorney general in DOJ's Office of Legal Policy.