Pompeo Aides Subpoenaed by House       08/04 06:23

   House Democrats have subpoenaed four top aides to Secretary of State Mike 
Pompeo, saying that the Trump administration is stonewalling their 
investigation into the firing of the State Department's top independent 
watchdog earlier this year.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Democrats have subpoenaed four top aides to 
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, saying that the Trump administration is 
stonewalling their investigation into the firing of the State Department's top 
independent watchdog earlier this year.

   Former State Department Inspector General Steve Linick appeared for a 
closed-door interview in the probe in June and told investigators that top 
department officials tried to bully him and dissuade his office from conducting 
a review of a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Saudi Arabia before he was fired.

   Linick also said he was looking into previously reported allegations that 
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his wife may have misused government staff 
to run personal errands and several other matters. Trump abruptly fired him 
late on May 15 with what Linick said was no warning or cited cause.

   Democrats announced Monday that they had subpoenaed the officials because 
they were "refusing to negotiate in good faith" and talk to the committee.

   "That stonewalling has made today's subpoenas necessary, and the committees 
will continue to pursue this investigation to uncover the truth that the 
American people deserve," according to a statement from House Foreign Affairs 
Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., House Oversight and Reform Committee 
Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign 
Relations Committee, New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez.

   The subpoenas for closed-door depositions are for Undersecretary of State 
for Management Brian Bulatao, Acting State Department legal adviser Marik 
String, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs 
Michael Miller and senior adviser Toni A. Porter.

   The State Department flatly rejected the Democrats' allegations as 
"egregiously inaccurate" but did not say whether the officials would comply 
with the subpoenas.

   "We have provided a very clear path for every individual requested to engage 
with the committees," the department said in a statement. "All of the offers 
have been rejected, manipulated by the committees, or outright ignored. These 
series of offerings are more than generous in an accommodations process and as 
a historical matter, rarely turned down."

   Pompeo has rejected allegations that Linick was fired for investigating 
alleged impropriety and denied he was aware of any such probe into his or his 
wife's affairs. He has said Linick was removed for not doing his job.

   Linick, who had been inspector general since 2013, said he was in a "state 
of shock" when he was fired. He told the committees that he had opened a review 
of last year's $8 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia at the request of lawmakers 
who claimed Pompeo had inappropriately circumvented Congress to approve the 
deal. He said Bulatao and String then tried to stop him.

   In the statement announcing the subpoenas, the Democrats said they had also 
interviewed a separate State Department official, Charles Faulkner, and that 
interview "raises additional questions" about the Saudi arms sale.

   Pompeo, Bulatao and others have said Linick was dismissed in part because of 
the alleged leak of one of his office's reports into accusations of political 
reprisals by Trump appointees against career State Department officials. Linick 
denied his office was responsible for the leak and said an investigation by the 
Defense Department inspector general cleared him and his office.