The House Judiciary Committee wants President Trump’s acting Homeland Security Department secretary to turn over information related to Trump’s alleged promise of pardon if he closes the southern border.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., and other top lawmakers on the panel sent acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan a letter seeking “information and documents related to President Donald Trump’s reported offer of a pardon to him as a means to encourage him to close the Southern border.”
The Democrats asked McAleenan to “make himself” and other department officials available to testify before the committee.
Trump has threatened to close the southern border in response to a massive surge in illegal immigrant families who have crossed into the United States from Mexico.
According to media reports, Trump promised to pardon McAleenan if he is prosecuted for closing the border, a move immigration agents fear is illegal.
“The reported discussion between you, President Trump, and other Department personnel follows a troubling pattern of conduct that has emerged over the past two years that appears to demonstrate that President Trump views the pardon power as a political tool, or even worse, as an expedient mechanism for circumventing the law or avoiding the consequences of his own conduct,” the Democrats wrote to McAleenan.
The Democrats asked McAleenan to turn over the list of all department officials who were present when Trump offered the pardon, as well as when he discussed with McAleenan turning away illegal immigrants seeking asylum.
They also demanded “documents and communications” relating to now-ousted Homeland Secretary Kirstjen Neilsen’s meeting with Trump in March to discuss his proposal to close the border and reinstatement of the zero-tolerance policy of prosecuting anyone who crosses into the country illegally.
