Department of Homeland Security officials left a Tuesday hearing in search of the source of some embarrassing leaks, according to a letter from Senate Homeland Security Committee chairman Ron Johnson.
“I will not tolerate, nor should DHS tolerate, any effort to retaliate against federal employees for communicating with the committee or any member of Congress,” the Wisconsin Republican wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Wednesday.
Johnson confronted DHS leaders on Tuesday about an incident related to the San Bernardino terrorist attack, in which U.S. Customs and Immigration Services officials barred another DHS agency from detaining the man who allegedly provided the shooters their weapons. The officials seemed flat-footed at first, but confirmed that the incident had happened due to “the chaos that was going on in San Bernardino.”
Johnson’s letter recalled that incident and faulted Immigrations and Customs Enforcement leadership for trying to track down the source of his information.
“I am further concerned by subsequent reports to my office that, following the hearing, ICE management has been seeking to identify which individual(s) furnished information to the Committee about the incident,” he wrote to Johnson. “I worry that management is seeking to retaliate against those employees.”
In a separate letter, Johnson asked Inspector General John Roth, the top DHS watchdog, to investigate both the apparent search for the source of his information in order to “take appropriate remedial actions.”
