The chairman of the House Oversight Committee has authorized subpoenas for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and a number of Secret Service officials for testimony and documents related to the Secret Service’s tip-off to the Biden transition team regarding a planned Hunter Biden tax probe interview in 2020, while going on to accuse both federal agencies of obstructing a congressional investigation.
Letters sent by the committee to Mayorkas and Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle were obtained exclusively by Fox News, the outlet reported. Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) sent a half-dozen subpoenas on Tuesday— one directed to Mayorkas for documents and five for depositions. Those include a pair of Secret Service officials and three officials with DHS.
“The Department of Justice initiated the Biden family coverup and now DHS under the leadership of Secretary Mayorkas is complicit in it,” Comer told the outlet. “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. This is just one of many examples of the misconduct and politicization during the Department of Justice’s investigation.”
The chairman said his committee, along with the Judiciary and Ways and Means Committees, “is seeking interviews with key witnesses, including employees at the Secret Service.”
“The Department of Homeland Security is obstructing our investigation by muzzling the Secret Service from providing a response to Congress,” he explained. “The American people deserve transparency, not obstruction.”
Fox News added:
Comer subpoenaed the director of oversight for DHS’ Office of Legislative Affairs, K. Shiek Pal, to testify before the committee; along with assistant secretary to OLA Zephranie Buetow; and DHS senior advisor to the general counsel Stephen Jonas.
Comer also subpoenaed the assistant director of the Secret Services’ Intergovernmental and Legislative Affairs office, Vincent Tutoni, and the acting special agent in charge of the congressional affairs program for the Secret Service, David McKeown, to testify before the committee.
Comer went on to say that Republicans in the House “will hold the Biden Administration accountable for running interference for the Biden family’s corruption and criminal activity.”
The subpoenas were issued after whistleblowers testified before Congress earlier this year, asserting that prosecutorial choices made during the Hunter Biden investigation, which was overseen by the current Special Counsel David Weiss, were influenced by political considerations.
Several whistleblowers gave testimony indicating that in December 2020, Secret Service headquarters received advance notice of an upcoming interview by FBI and IRS agents with Hunter Biden as part of a tax investigation. This advance notice prompted the Secret Service to inform the Biden transition team, ultimately leading to the cancellation of the interview with then-President-elect Joe Biden’s son, despite him being the primary subject of the longstanding federal probe, Fox News noted.
A whistleblower revealed that the FBI and IRS had scheduled an interview with Hunter Biden for December 8, 2020. This whistleblower informed Congress that on the night of December 7, 2020, just before the scheduled interview, they were informed that the FBI had “notified Secret Service headquarters and the transition team about the planned actions the following day…essentially tipping off a group of people very close to President Biden and Hunter Biden and gave this group an opportunity to obstruct the approach on the witness.”
The account was corroborated by an FBI supervisory special agent who was accompanying the IRS whistleblower during the interview attempt, Fox News reported, adding that the interview never took place.
