Four State Department officials have been subpoenaed by the House Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as part of the investigation into whether former Inspector General Steve Linick was fired because of his investigation into Secretary of State Pompeo, the committee chairpersons announced Monday.
The subpoenas were announced by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y.; House Oversight and Reform Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez, D-N.J., according to a release from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
They are calling for depositions from undersecretary Brian Bulatao, legal adviser Marik String, deputy assistant secretary for political-military affairs Michael Miller, and senior adviser Toni Porter, with the committees probing whether Linick was fired for investigating allegations that Pompeo and the State Department tried bypassing Congress to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, reports Axios.
In June, Linick told Congress he had been conducting 5 investigations before President Donald Trump fired him after a recommendation from Pompeo.
He also testified that Bulatao, one of Pompeo's long-time aides, "tried to bully" him into dropping his investigation into the arms sales and that he was looking into allegations that Pompeo had misused his staff.
Pompeo, meanwhile, had said Linick was not performing "in a way that we had tried to get him to" and he has asked for a probe into Linick for what he called a "disturbing pattern of leaks."
The committee chairpersons also said former State Department official Charles Faulkner testified about Linick's removal in June.
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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