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WASHINGTON: Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf will resign, days after criticizing President Donald Trump for the United States Capitol unrest.
Wolf, whose department is in charge of security for President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20, will retire at midnight, according to a letter he sent to DHS staff.
The announcement makes him the third person to resign from Donald Trump’s cabinet after the attack by the president’s supporters on the United States Capitol last week.
Wolf said he intended to remain in office until President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.
But Wolf, who had served in an interim capacity since November 2019 and was never confirmed by the Senate, said he was forced to leave by “recent events,” including court rulings that determined he could not legally hold the position. specify the other events or cite other factors.
“These events and concerns increasingly serve to divert attention and resources from the important work of the Department at this critical time in a transition of power,” he said in a written message to DHS employees.
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The departure of Wolf, long a close ally of Trump, follows the abrupt resignation of other cabinet officials angered by Trump’s role in encouraging the mob to storm the Capitol on Jan.6 over his false claims of voter fraud. .
“While I have always condemned political violence on both sides of the aisle, specifically violence directed at law enforcement, we now see some supporters of the president using violence as a means to achieve political ends,” he said.
The White House had no immediate comment.
In September, a DHS official alleged in a whistleblower complaint that he was pressured by higher department officials to suppress facts in intelligence reports that Trump might find objectionable, including information about Russian interference in the elections and the growing threat that they represent white supremacists. .
Wolf and the department denied the allegations. The acting secretary defended his mandate in his statement to employees, saying that DHS had strengthened border security and successfully launched the cybersecurity agency that helped safeguard the 2020 elections.
“I leave knowing that the Department has positioned itself for a smooth and orderly transition to President-elect Biden’s DHS team,” he wrote.
“Welcome them, educate them and learn from them. They will be your leaders for the next four years, a time that will certainly be full of challenges and opportunities to show the American public the value of DHS and why it is worth the investment. “
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Peter Gaynor, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, will serve as acting head of the Department of Homeland Security until the Biden administration takes over.
Biden nominated Alejandro Mayorkas, a former high-ranking DHS official, to head an agency that carried out the Trump administration’s priorities on immigration and law enforcement and was criticized for becoming politicized as a result.
Trump named Wolf acting secretary in November 2019, following the resignation of Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary who took over after Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s resignation.
Wolf had been Nielsen’s chief of staff and undersecretary for the agency, as well as an official with the Transportation Security Administration, a component of DHS. He has also worked as a lobbyist.
Trump had said he liked the “flexibility” of having top officials in a state of play despite criticism that it prevents people from planning long-term that would give an agency more stability.
The President sent Wolf’s nomination to the Senate for confirmation after the Government Accountability Office determined that neither Wolf nor his deputy, Ken Cuccinelli, were legally eligible to head DHS due to a violation of the rules of succession in the federal agencies. That finding has put the policy changes under his mandate, especially those related to immigration, in potential jeopardy due to legal challenges.
