Two Republican lawmakers recently claimed that a Department of Homeland Security whistleblower during the Obama administration didn’t commit suicide. Philip Haney, 66, died last month while police ruled that the cause of death was likely a single, self-inflicted gunshot wound.
GOP Reps. Steve King of Iowa and Louie Gohmert of Texas both alleged that Haney didn’t commit suicide in speeches on the House floor last week.
“I’m standing on the floor here saying, Madame Speaker, I don’t believe that Phil Haney committed suicide,” King said, according to the Daily Beast. “I expect that we’re going to get a thorough investigation. The evidence that is coming to me indicates that he was murdered.”
“Phil often said, ‘I would never commit suicide,’” King added.
Gohmert made similar comments, saying, “I’d been concerned about his safety, with all the information he knew and people who could’ve gotten in trouble.” The congressman added, “We had a mutual pact. It said: Either one of us ended up committing suicide, then the other is going to make sure that the truth wins out.”
As a whistleblower, Haney testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in June 2016 that the DHS directed him to delete hundreds of files of people tied to Islamist terrorist groups, arguing that several terrorist attacks against people in the United States could have been prevented if certain files had not been scrubbed.
Haney’s stepmother, Judith Haney, previously told the Washington Examiner that the police “haven’t made a conclusion” regarding his death.
