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Democrat Sen. Tammy Duckworth (Ill.) criticized Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for trying to enforce a statute that the lawmaker opposes.
The DHS faced pushback from Duckworth after the agency requested a list of the Office of Inspector General's ongoing investigations, accusing the OIG of illegally withholding such information.
In late January, Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) met with DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari to demand that the watchdog open a probe into the “egregious public execution of Alex Pretti and pattern of brutality from Trump’s lawless agents.”
'It is unfortunate that you are trying to score cheap political points rather than focus on the Inspector General’s illegal conduct.'
Duckworth speculated that the OIG denied her request because the DHS had sent the OIG “repeated tacit threats” to “sabotage” its investigations by invoking 5 U.S.C. § 417, a provision of the law that gives the DHS secretary the authority to terminate investigations that could harm national security or present a significant impairment to U.S. interests.
“I learned Kristi Noem repeatedly reminded DHS’s IG that she can unilaterally kill any investigation,” Duckworth wrote. “Why would she do that? Feels like a threat to me.”
If Secretary Noem chooses to invoke the statute to terminate an OIG investigation, the OIG must report the decision to Congress within 30 days, providing an explanation of its rationale and whether the watchdog supported the decision.
DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
In a Friday letter to the DHS, Duckworth described seeking to enforce the statute as an “obscure authority” that has “never been invoked in the history of DHS,” adding that it is “contrary to the letter and spirit of the Inspector General Act of 1978."
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated, “Senator Duckworth is arguing that a Senate-confirmed Cabinet secretary shouldn’t use an existing section of federal law because she doesn’t think it should exist. If Senator Duckworth and her fellow Democrats do not like the law that Congress already passed, they — as members of Congress — have full constitutional authority under Article I to change the law and assuage their own concerns. As it stands, 5 U.S.C. 417 is federal law, and it applies to Secretary Noem just the same as it applied to previous homeland security secretaries for decades without controversy.”
DHS General Counsel James Percival responded to Duckworth's letter on Monday.
“I want to express my surprise at your suggestion that DHS should only enforce the laws that you personally agree with,” Percival told the lawmaker in his response letter, obtained by Blaze News.
“I am puzzled that you would ask me, the Senate-confirmed General Counsel who swore an oath to uphold federal law, to become a law unto myself and pick and choose which laws to enforce. As you surely know, it is Congress’s purview to make laws, and it is the Executive Branch’s purview to ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,’” Percival told Duckworth. “I decline your request to ignore the separation of powers and intrude into your own branch’s functions.”
Percival confirmed that the DHS had requested a list of ongoing investigations from the OIG, but that Noem had not sought to invoke her authority to terminate any of those probes.
“Rather, I requested on her behalf a list of all investigations to ensure she can evaluate whether it might ever be appropriate to exercise that power,” he continued.
Percival accused the OIG of “illegal conduct” by stonewalling such information.
“The real problem is that for years the Inspector General has been violating an implied requirement of the statute by withholding this information from prior secretaries and thereby making it impossible for them to faithfully execute § 417,” Percival wrote. “The fact that previous secretaries have ignored this law only demonstrates the incomparable leadership of Secretary Noem.”
“It is unfortunate that you are trying to score cheap political points rather than focus on the Inspector General’s illegal conduct,” he added.
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Tammy Duckworth. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Duckworth called Percival’s response “truly bizarre and deeply troubling.”
“I am frankly shocked that instead of simply denying that the Secretary is seeking to intimidate an independent government watchdog out of investigating potential crimes committed by DHS agents, it appears her brown-nosing General Counsel is proud of his efforts to sabotage IG independence on behalf Secretary Noem [sic] and is baselessly accusing Donald Trump’s own hand-picked IG of engaging in ‘illegal conduct,’” she stated.
The OIG did not respond to a request for comment.
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