House Democrats subpoenaed multiple aides to Secretary Mike Pompeo as they continue with an investigation into the firing of former State Department Inspector General Steve Linick.
Subpoenas for Pompeo’s Top Aides
Four of Pompeo’s top aides are now intertwined into a dramatic showdown with top Democrats from three congressional committees.
They want to grill Pompeo’s close ally, Brian Bulatao, who is the undersecretary of State for management. The other aides with subpoenas include senior adviser Toni Porter, deputy assistant secretary of State for political-military affairs Michael Miller, and acting State Department legal adviser Marik String.
House Democrats Eliot Engel, Carolyn Maloney and Bob Menendez talked about the incident in a joint statement.
“The Administration continues to cover up the real reasons for Mr. Linick’s firing by stonewalling the Committees’ investigation and refusing to engage in good faith,” the statement began.
“That stonewalling has made today’s subpoenas necessary, and the Committees will continue to pursue this investigation to uncover the truth that the American people deserve,” the lawmakers continued.
Retaliation for Being Fired?
Earlier in the year, Linick was fired during the time he was poking around into Pompeo and his wife allegedly using government resources for various personal uses, the Hill reports.
President Trump ultimately fired Linick, but Pompeo insists it had nothing to do with retaliation against the investigation. Democrats have stood on their belief that this isn’t true and are determined to look into every detail of Linick’s removal, hence the subpoenas.
The subpoena recipient receiving the most attention is Bulatao, who has known Pompeo since their time at West Point. He was supposed to testify in early July, but it got bumped so the State Department could look over reports.
Linick has said that Bulatao tried to “bully” him about the investigations.
“We had a number of disagreements about the way in which a leak investigation was going to be handled,” Linick testified in June.
“He wanted to sort of take control over a leak investigation that was being conducted by the [Department of Defense inspector general]. So that’s one example of that. The other has to do with the work we were doing on the arms control, in trying to have us not work on that matter, stating that it was a policy matter and it was not within our jurisdiction to look at it. So that was sort of the nature of that attempt to bully.”
Democrats Keep Coming After Trump and his Team
The subpoenas show that Democrats will continue to come after Trump’s team and the rest of the administration. It’s one thing to try and get justice, but it’s another to engage in witch hunts for political reasons.
Is Pompeo guilty of what he is being accused, or is this just another left-wing attempt to take down Republicans? We may never truly know.