Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) has threatened to use “subpoena power” against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in an effort to end their resistance to congressional investigations into the attempted assassinations of Donald Trump.
Blumenthal told reporters that DHS has been “stonewalling” probes from the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI). He described DHS as “almost derelict in its duty by resisting our requests for documents, evidence, and information that are necessary to investigate.”
“We may need to require more cooperation from them. And we have the power to do so through the compulsory process. In other words, the subpoena power,” he said.
PSI ranking member Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said that the lack of information from DHS is “driving suspicion and driving conspiracy theories.”
A DHS spokesperson said the agency is “committed to working in good faith and making every effort to cooperate with the appropriate and relevant investigations into July 13th to identify how this happened and how to prevent it from happening again.”
The spokesperson said that the DHS and Secret Service have “provided the Senate with multiple briefings, nearly 2,500 pages of documents, and more than 50 hours of transcribed interviews.”
Blumenthal said last week that Americans will be “appalled” by a report on the Secret Service’s failures in the assassination attempt on Trump. “But I think they also ought to be appalled and astonished by the failure of the Department of Homeland Security to be more forthcoming, to be as candid and frank, as it should be to them in terms of providing information,” he added.
