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Last month, the committee issued a subpoena to Mike Pompeo demanding the documents he provided to Republicans investigating Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
FILE: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at a press conference on December 11, 2019 in Washington. Image: AFP
WASHINGTON – The US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs announced a contempt proceeding on Friday against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, citing his refusal to comply with a subpoena for records of his “clearly political misuse.” of department resources.
The committee’s Democratic chairman, Eliot Engel, also cited a speech that Pompeo recorded in Jerusalem for the Republican National Convention this week and said he had “displayed an alarming disregard for the laws and rules that govern his own conduct and for the tools that the constitution provides to prevent government corruption. “
“He seems to think that the office he occupies, the department he heads, the staff he oversees, and the taxpayer dollars that pay for everything are there for his personal and political gain,” Engel said.
The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last month, the committee issued a subpoena from Pompeo demanding documents he provided to Republicans investigating Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
A Republican-led US Senate committee has been gathering information related to Hunter Biden, son of former US Vice President, an opponent of Republican President Donald Trump in the November election.
Engel said Pompeo had told the House committee that the documents would be provided if he conducted 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 with a smear of the president’s political rival,” Engel said.
Hunter Biden is a former board member of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. The company was brought into the global spotlight last year in an impeachment inquiry into whether Trump unduly pressured the Kiev government to open a case involving his electoral rival.
In his speech to the RNC on Tuesday, Pompeo praised Trump’s foreign policy record. Critics said he broke decades of protocol by using his appointed position for partisan purposes, and Joaquín Castro, head of the oversight subcommittee for the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said his move may have been illegal.
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