The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, chaired by Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., Tuesday issued subpoenas to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Secret Service on claims that DHS employees had blocked the Secret Service from providing information to Congress concerning the Justice Department's conduct in the criminal investigation into Hunter Biden.
"The Department of Justice initiated the Biden family coverup and now DHS under the leadership of Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas is complicit in it," the Kentucky Republican said in a statement. "Investigators were never able to interview Hunter Biden during the criminal investigation because Secret Service headquarters and the Biden transition team were tipped off about the planned interview."
He added that the alleged action was "just one of many examples of the misconduct and politicization during the Department of Justice’s investigation."
The subpoenas compel Mayorkas to provide all documents and communications about how the Biden transition team was tipped off about plans to interview Hunter Biden in December 2020, documents and communications related to the request from Congress, and depositions with DHS and Secret Service employees that were involved in providing the response.
"The Oversight Committee — along with the Judiciary and Ways and Means Committees – is seeking interviews with key witnesses, including employees at the Secret Service," Comer said. "The Department of Homeland Security is obstructing our investigation by muzzling the Secret Service from providing a response to Congress. The American people deserve transparency, not obstruction. House Republicans will hold the Biden Administration accountable for running interference for the Biden family’s corruption and criminal activity."
According to testimony from IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley, investigators from the FBI and IRS were planning to interview Hunter Biden on Dec. 8, 2020, but on Dec. 7, FBI headquarters told the Secret Service and Biden's transition team about the plans, the Oversight statement said.
The account had been confirmed to the Oversight Committee during a transcribed interview with a former FBI Supervisory Special Agent who accompanied the IRS whistleblower during attempts to interview Hunter Biden, but after the tipoff occurred, the interview did not happen.
Meanwhile, in June, Comer, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., wrote to Kimberly Cheatle, the director of the Secret Service, to request that the agency make all Secret Service employees who received the Dec. 7, 2020, tip-off from FBI available, as well as making all Secret Service employees who may have passed this information along to the Biden family or presidential transition team. But while the Secret Service sought to provide a response to the committees, DHS blocked it, Comer said in the statement.
The Secret Service sought to provide a more substantive response to the three congressional committees, but DHS blocked the agency from providing it, he added.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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