Transcripts For CSPAN House Hearing On State Department IG F

This room, for guidance from the office of attending physician, masks must be worn at all times during todays proceedings except when a member or witness is speaking. Please also sanitize your seating area. They view these as a safety measure and an important matter of order and decorum for this proceeding. For members participating remotely, please keep your video function on at all times. Even if you are not recognized by the chair. Members are responsible for muting and unmuting themselves and please remember to mute yourself after you finish speaking. Consistent with House Resolution 965 and the accompanying regulations, staff and members will view it as appropriate when they arent under recognition to eliminate background noise. I see that we have a quorum and i now recognize myself for opening remarks. Let me welcome our witnesses as ive let the Ranking Member know. Ill be going considerably longer than the customary five minutes. My statement this morning and, of course, ill yield to mr. Mccall for the considerable amount of time i consume. We have a lot to go over before we hear from our witnesses. On the evening of may 15th, friday, the president notified Speaker Pelosi if he was removing the state Department Inspector general steve linick. The law requires 30 days notice to fire an ig, so mr. Linicks last day was june 14th. The president and the secretary, however, violated the spirit of the law by immediately placing mr. Linick on leave and locking him out of both his office and his email. In the days that followed, both the president and secretary pompeo made clear that the firing came at mr. Pompeos urging. I predict that today we may hear the refrain repeated that the president has the power to fire an Inspector General whenever he wants to so long as he provides the reasons for the firing to congress. No one is doubting that, i dont think in the last four months ive heard anyone say otherwise. The president has that power. But weve seen again and again in the last four years, the president shows very little reluctance to abuse his power and in may when mr. Linick was removed, the president was on a firing spree of inspectors general. The executive branchs independent watchdogs who helped provide accountability and transparency in our government. With that in mind and in need of information provided to the committee that mr. Linicks firing may have been retaliatory in nature, again, something that would represent an abuse of power, the committee launched an investigation into mr. Linicks removal, along with the committee on oversight and reform and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee minority office. The state department has refused to date to produce any of the records we requested related to the firing. Witnesses have come forward and given us a lot of good detail and context. Reports in the press have shed even more light on this matter. Now heres what we know. Mr. Linicks firing was not a spur of the moment decision. Mr. Linick was told on may 15th he was being pushed out. His temporary replacement, ambassador steve atgard had already been lined up for a month or more. In his affidavit to the committee, he says that mr. Contacted him on april 9th or april 15th saying 3mr. Linicks ouster was imminent and hed assume the position on an acting basis. Over the next few weeks they spoke several more times including may 14th and may 16th as mr. Linicks removal was going forward. We know that at the time, mr. Linick was fired, his office was conducting two investigations involving secretary pompeos conduct. The first probe dealt with allegations that the secretary and his wife misused Government Resources for their own personal benefit. According to mr. Linicks testimony, his team began reaching out to the office of the secretary requesting documents in late 2019. Mr. Linick stated that about the same time he spoke to mr. Bulatao, among other senior officials to let them know he was seeking information. In his words, his aim was, quote, not to surprise the seventh floor, unquote. Meaning the departments leadership with news of his probe. Mr. Linick said that his office had contacted state Department Executive secretary lisa kenna about this matter as well. Indeed in her interview with the committee, she testified that in march of this year, the oig requested documents related to the pompeos travel. Like mr. Linick, mr. Kenna discussed the matter with Senior Department officials. Mr. Bulatao and also mr. String. Ms. Kenna also stated that every time there is an invitation to mrs. Pompeo that involves travel, i get it to the under secretary for management and he makes the determination, unquote. The under secretary of management being mr. Bulatao. Ms. Kenna authorized the search for these documents, but mr. Linick was fired before they were turned over to the oig. According to ms. Kenna, the documents were only sent to the oig after ambassador card had taken over the igs office. We presume the oigs work on this matter is ongoing so we dont know all the details. Press reports have also alleged that secretary and mrs. Pompeo use Government Employees to handle personal errands. Mr. Ms. Tony porter, an adviser to the secretary, told us in an interview that the secretary and mrs. Pompeo, who is not a state Department Employee, would often have ms. Porter work on matters of special interest to the secretary which apparently included making dinner reservations and helping with the pompeos personal Christmas Cards. Reporting in the press earlier this week disclosed emale traffic involving mrs. Pompeo and ms. Porter and ms. Kenna suggesting they both understood an assignment to ms. Porter to be of a personal nature that worked to keep a tight circle of Government Employees who worked on these matters. The committee has learned there have been a large number of complaints to the oig hot line about the way secretary and mrs. Pompeo were misusing the Department Resources for unofficial matters. This alleged misuse of resources is not just for personal errand. It seems to be focused on the pompeos political future. Specifically, theres the question of a socalled Madison Dinners, dinners the pompeos have hosted from the state departments ornate eighth floor. Ms. Porter testified the pompeos conceived of the dinners as a way to expand the understanding of state department work, unquote. The only problem with that explanation is that aside from the extensive planning that goes into these dinners, barely anyone from the state department attends them. In fact, the secretary is the only Department Official who attends the closed door dinners, no senior diplomats, no regional experts, none of the people who on a daytoday basis carry out state department work. A requirement for the state department to pay for the dinners and a dozen or so guests handpicked by the pompeos, nearly all republican officials or people tied somehow to right wing politics, money or media. But ms. Porters testimony suggests that the foreign dignitary with a boxchecking exercise. The Protocol Office would sometimes swap out one dignitary for another while the pompeos kept a tight grip on the political side of the guest list. Ms. Porter also stated that since the pompeos began hosting these dinners, theyve built a database to keep track of all the people theyve invited whose the people who have been invited, ms. Porters who works for the pompeos goes back decades and involves planning the former congressmans fund raisers called it a management tool. While its understandable that the Protocol Team to keep track of who was invited to official events, mrs. Pompeo had that list sent to her private email address. Suddenly a normal system starts something more like a political contact tool. These dinners were reported paid for out of the state departments k fund and can be used for confidential requirements and the conduct of Foreign Affairs as well as other authorized activities that further the realizization of u. S. Foreign policy objectives. This fund is overseen by undersecretary bulatao. I asked my staff to review the most recent unclassified reports to congress on this fund which was sent a package with classified material and are held in the scif. That raised an eyebrow or two who understand state department budgets. The pompeos have reportedly hosted about 20 of these dinners and after a hiatus brought on by the covid pandemic, the dinners restarted in earnest on monday with three more reported scheduled within the next few weeks. It death with the department more than 8 million arms in sales country. They released its report last month. Theres a lot to unpack here and its important that we lay it all out. In march of 2015 a Saudiled Coalition launched an intervention in the civil war in yemen aimed at the houthi forces. The Obama Administration initially supported this effort through arms sales and logisticcal support. They faced security challenges that threatened freedom of navigation and u. S. Troops stationed in the middle east. Over time, however, it became clear that the saudis were acting recklessly in the way they were carrying out that campaign with u. S. Weapons. Excuse me. Civilian casualties mounted, a humanitarian crisis began burning out of control. The Obama Administration pushed pause on the sale of american weapons to the saudis and their partners. When President Trump took office, it was an early priority of his administration to get the flow of weapons going again. The concerns about civilian casualties had not gone away and both sides of the aisle, myself included, began putting holds on sales of the most lethal weapons used in the war. A sale notified in april of 2018 for 120,000 guided munitions sometimes called smart bombs. Congress passed legislation requiring a certification from the administration that the saudis were taking adequate steps to reduce civilian casualties. On august 9th, 2018, the saudis Left Coalition the Saudiled Coalition blew up a school bus killing 25 children and injuring scores more. Over a month later, secretary pompeo certified to congress that the saudi and iranian governments were, quote, undertaking demon straitabstrab actions. The sales remain in place for nine months while the carnage went on in yemen. Mr congresss concerns about civilian casualties were legitimate. He said that many state Department Officials shared those same concerns. How could you not, weve seen all of the images, collapsed buildings, twisted metal, starving children. We challenge the congress to provide assurances that the weapons would not be used to kill civilians. Secretary pompeo wanted a different way forward. Moving ahead with lots of weapon sales was a major priority for the white house. For mr. Pompeo, a logjam of congress had to be broken and in april 20, 2019, he had found a way to do it. An administration can bypass the congressional approval process by declaring an emergency. He testified that he was worried about what impact such an action would have on the departments relations of capitol hill. After all, senator menendezs concerns hasnt diminished. The state department notified congress that they were declaring an emergency and moving forward with arms sales packaged for saudi arabia and the uae. As i noticed earlier, no one doubts that it exists in the law and the executive branch has the power to invoke that authority. To my knowledge, no one has suggested otherwise despite some of the spin weve heard from the state department. But the questions since last may has been, quote, did secretary pompeo abuse that power when he declared an emergency . Was the emergency phony . Was it a mere pretext to circumvent oversight. Thats why mr. Linick was asked to look into this decision, the findings of that probe are eyeopening. The oig found consistent with what i just said that the Emergency Declaration did not break the law leaving it up to a normal administrations commonsense but the oig also stated explicitly that it did not assess whether there was a real emergency in denying that declaration. Frankly they didnt need to make that assessment the facts speak for themselves. Excuse me. The unclassified portion of the report lays out a timeline for the Emergency Declaration that aligns with mr. Fulkners testimony. It took seven weeks to makes its way through the department. The report also tells us underneath redactions that the department insisted the oig slap on top of the version released to the public that mr. Pompeo determined on may 4th that he wanted to send the Emergency Notification to congress no later than may 24th. An emergency that you can plan for seven weeks in advance isnt an emergency. As far as im concerned, especially when the regular congressional review process would have taken less time. I have to note that mr. Cooper testified before this Committee Last year that the emergency that required this extraordinary action arose between may 21st 2019, when mr. Pompeo briefed congress and may 24th, 2019, when the declaration was transmitted to us. That testimony was false. The report also indicates that most of the arms packages have not been delivered yet. And likely wont be during this calendar year. Again, what kind of wartime emergency can be addressed with weapons that arrive two years later and the answer obviously is none. There is no emergency. Ranking member mccall and i offered an amendment to last years ndaa that would have better defined the word emergency. My view, the nonsense that the department pulled to get around congress is a secondary question. I believe it was an abuse of power and affront to our system of checks and balances. I believe the department made false representations to this committee, but what is this about . Many of us here in congress saw the situation on the ground in yemen and said enough. We thought that before we shipped instruments of death overseas, a precaution should be in place to ensure that those instruments would not used to blow up school buses. We didnt want the United States to be party to the slaughter of innocence. But mike pompeos state department didnt see it that way. His view is summed up in this sentence and i quote, oig Family Department did not fully assess risks and implement mitigation measures to reduce civilian casualties and legal concerns associated with the transfer of pgms included in the secretarys may 2019 emergency certification. Didnt assess the risks, didnt try to reduce civilian casualties, didnt deal with legal concerns, this isnt describing the saudis or the iranians, its describing our own state department under the Trump Administration under mike pompeo. Think about that funding in the broader context ive just laid out and ask yourself, why didnt they do those things . Was it an oversight in the mad rush to get weapons out the door after mr. Pompeo made that Emergency Declaration . Did those questions fall by the wayside. The answer is of course not. The emergency was declared specifically so that the state department could avoid answering those questions and how do we know that . Because those are the precise questions congress was already asking, thats why we held up the arm sales. What are the risks . What are we doing to reduce civilian deaths . This is a deeply damning report. Now that weve seen it, the findings into the igs firing make more sense. Namely that state Department Officials have been trying for months to suppress the findings. In his testimony, mr. Linick said that mr. Bulatao and mr. Spring attempted to bully him by saying they should not be looking into this matter. Of course its an entirely legitimate for an ig to examine policy implementation again per mr. Linicks testimony, mr. Bulatao seemed not to understand the role of an independent ig. Its also quite noteworthy that secretary pompeo refused to be interviewed for the oigs review. Mr. Linick stated last year he approached mr. Bulatao and mr. String about scheduling the interview. They suggested he conduct the interview personally. Mr. Linick told mr. String that he was amenable to the idea as long as one other member could be present as a witness. The secretarys team ignored that request and mr. Pompeo was not interviewed. He provided the oig the written statement that it had never requested. When the pandemic hit in march, and the oig was wrapping up its work on this matter, mr. Linick considered to considered the issue unresolved and hoped to find some time in the future to interview the secretary which he continued to discuss with mr. String. But before he and mr. String reached an accommodation, mr. Linick was fired. Everything mr. Linick said suggested that he considered an interview with mr. Pompeo to be an important piece of unfinished business. Mr. Linicks temporary replacement learned quickly that secretary pompeo was particularly interested in this report. According to the affidavit during his first two weeks on the job, they called him expressing mr. Pompeos curiosity about when the oigs work on arm sales would be done. He recused himself from the process. That was sensible as he did deep conflicts of interest in addition to Services Acting as Inspector General. He retained his role in the state department as the director of the office of Foreign Missions in which he reported both to mr. Bulatao and secretary pompeo. Its easy to see how this would affect his work. Mr. Eckhart began an investigation into an issue that mr. Pompeo didnt want review. The rollout of this report is shrouded in controversy. The evening before the oig released the report, there was a back