The top trade group for federal law enforcement officers has jumped in to oppose congressional subpoenas of two senior members of the Secret Service.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who chairs the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, on Tuesday issued subpoenas to compel two senior leaders in the Secret Service to testify about a March 4 incident involving two agents’ alleged disruption of a suspicious package investigation after a night of drinking.
Chaffetz said he reluctantly issued the two subpoenas after talks broke down between his committee and the Department of Homeland Security about the possibility of the two senior leaders testifying.
Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association President John Adler Wednesday said he was troubled by the subpoenas because the DHS inspector general is already in the middle of investigating the March 4 incident and should be allowed to continue without congressional interference.
Chaffetz’s aggressive efforts to compel the two Secret Service leaders to testify, Adler said, is especially worrisome considering recent revelations that initial accounts of the March 4 incident may have been overblown and that the two agents allegedly involved did not crash into a barricade but only nudged an orange cone marking the bomb investigation.
“The chairman’s actions boggle the rational mind,” Adler said in a statement Wednesday. “He’s turning the committee into the fictional U.S.S. Caine as he subpoenas law enforcement officers to his ship to count strawberries.”
“One has to question why he feels compelled to trample on due process and the integrity of the IG investigation, and redirect an official investigation into his theater of the absurd,” he added.
Adler was referring to the Caine Mutiny, Herman Wouk’s 1951 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel in which the captain of the ship becomes obsessed with minor crimes, such as the theft of a quart of frozen strawberries.
In issuing the statement, Adler is siding strongly with DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson who defiantly challenged Chaffetz’ subpoenas Tuesday, calling them “unprecedented” and “unnecessary.”
He also denied that the department has been uncooperative and said he had offered a number of Secret Service personnel, including the two that have been subpoenaed, for transcribed interviews with committee staff.
“For reasons that are unclear to me, Chairman Chaffetz and his staff rejected that offer,” he said.
Johnson also said he is acutely aware of the executive branch’s obligation to appear before Congress to give public testimony, noting that in 2014 he testified before Congress 12 times.
But he said, subordinates, in particular to the men and women of the Secret Service charged with protecting the president and the first family, are a “different story.”
“Clancy and I must fight to protect them against the visibility, public glare and inevitable second-guessing of a congressional hearing,” Johnson said. “I hope Chairman Chaffetz appreciates this.”
FLEOA joins Secretary Johnson in questioning the prudence of Chaffetz’s subpoenas.
“No one is more vested in protecting the president and the first family than those brave Secret Service law enforcement officers who are willing to risk their lives for them. They should not be exploited as pawns in a political game,” Adler said.
Johnson, in his statement Tuesday night, said he too wants to know what happened the night of March 4 and argued that the department’s inspector general is conducting a thorough investigation into the matter.
“I will continue to work with Chairman Chaffetz and his committee to reach a reasonable accommodation that serves the committee’s need to conduct responsible oversight without compromising the Secret Service’s extraordinary protection mission,” Johnson concluded.
