Mike Pompeo “believes the post he occupies is there for his personal and political benefit”: US official said
Washington:
The US House Foreign Affairs Committee on Friday announced contempt proceedings against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, citing his refusal to comply with a subpoena for his “transparent political abuse” of resources of the ministry.
The Democratic chairman of the House of Representatives committee, Eliot Engel, also quoted a speech Pompeo recorded in Jerusalem for this week’s Republican National Convention.
Engel said Pompeo had “shown an alarming disregard for the laws and rules governing his own conduct and for the tools provided by the Constitution to prevent government corruption.”
“He seems to think that the office he occupies, the department he runs, the staff he oversees and the taxpayers’ money who pay for it all are there for his personal and political benefit,” Engel said in a statement.
The statement by Engel, a State Department official, was “political theatricality” and that the department had offered to provide the documents to Engel on condition that he send a letter explaining the foreign policy issue he is investigating and that requires them.
“Once this letter is received, the Ministry will produce the documents,” said the representative.
Last month, the committee issued a subpoena to Pompeo demanding documents it provided Republicans investigating Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
A Republican-led US Senate committee has gathered information on Hunter Biden, son of former US Vice President, opponent of Republican President Donald Trump in the November election.
Engel said Pompeo told the House committee that the documents would be provided if he continued the same investigation as the Republican-led Senate committee.
“In other words, Pompeo will give the committee what we were looking for if we join in a bashing of the president’s political rival,” Engel said.
The State Department representative said the documents had already been provided to Democrats in the Senate.
Hunter Biden is a former board member of Ukrainian energy company Burisma. The company was placed in the global spotlight last year in an impeachment inquiry into whether Trump improperly pressured the Kiev government to open a case involving his electoral rival.
In his speech at the Republican convention on Tuesday, Pompeo praised Trump’s foreign policy record. Critics said he broke decades of protocol by using his designated office for partisan purposes. Joaquin Castro, head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s oversight subcommittee, said his decision may have been illegal.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
