A top Democrat threatened to issue subpoenas if Secretary of State Mike Pompeo does not share documents given to Republicans in the Senate who are investigating the son of former Vice President Joe Biden.
Rep. Eliot Engel, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, sent a letter to Pompeo on Thursday laying out his panel’s outstanding records requests while noting a “stark contrast” in responsiveness to the GOP-led inquiries into allegations of corruption surrounding Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian energy firm that once employed Hunter Biden.
“I am deeply concerned by what appears to be a partisan misuse of Department of State resources to assist Senate Republicans in a political smear of Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden,” the New York Democrat wrote.
Engel’s requests cover Trump’s communications with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the State Department’s spending of taxpayer funds at Trump properties, and matters related to the coronavirus pandemic and Trump’s decision to cut funding to the World Health Organization.
If Pompeo does not meet Engel’s June 1 deadline, the chairman said he is prepared to subpoena for the documents and to subpoena relevant State Department officials.
Earlier this month, Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, wrote a similar letter to Pompeo that claimed there was a troubling disparity in how the agency responded to document requests focused on the Bidens versus those that targeted Trump.
Pompeo is under intense scrutiny after Trump abruptly fired State Department Inspector General Steve Linick, who was investigating Pompeo.
Linick’s post is temporarily being taken over by Stephen Akard, whose qualifications have come into question by Democrats.
“It is deeply troubling that as State Department resources were wastefully used to send Senate Republicans documents to support their political fishing expedition, you pushed for the firing of the State Department’s independent watchdog, Inspector General Steve Linick — who would have been in a position (to) look into such concerns — and replaced him with a deeply conflicted administration loyalist,” Engel wrote in Thursday’s letter.
