House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has issued subpoenas to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and several officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Secret Service. The subpoenas are part of an investigation into allegations that the Secret Service tipped off the Biden transition team about a planned interview in 2020 regarding Hunter Biden’s tax probe. Comer has accused the agencies of obstructing the congressional investigation into this matter.
The subpoenas include a request for documents from Secretary Mayorkas and seek depositions from two Secret Service officials and three DHS officials. Comer contends that DHS, under Mayorkas’s leadership, is complicit in obstructing the investigation into allegations that Secret Service headquarters and the Biden transition team were informed about the planned interview of Hunter Biden, preventing it from taking place. These allegations have raised concerns about potential political influence on prosecutorial decisions during the Hunter Biden investigation.
Multiple whistleblowers have testified that Secret Service headquarters were alerted about the planned interview in December 2020, leading to the Biden transition team being notified and the interview not taking place. Comer and other House committees have requested interviews with key witnesses, including Secret Service employees, to further investigate the matter.
The subpoenas come after the House Oversight Committee, along with other committees, wrote to the U.S. Secret Service seeking interviews with relevant employees. The Secret Service’s delayed and opaque responses to these requests have raised suspicions of obstruction. Comer has accused the DHS Office of Legislative Affairs of instructing the Secret Service to withhold a response prepared for the committees, constituting obstruction of a congressional investigation.
The DHS has denied allegations of obstruction, stating that it was working to respond to the committee’s inquiry before the subpoenas were issued. The DHS asserts that standard review procedures were followed to protect law enforcement sensitivities, ongoing investigations, privacy, and privilege issues.
The investigation and subpoenas reflect the ongoing scrutiny of the Biden administration’s handling of the Hunter Biden tax probe and allegations of political influence on the investigation process.