Sen. Cotton Places Hold On Ambassador Confirmations In Light Of Secret Service Leaks
by October 5, 2015 9:31 pm 223 views
The nominations of three people selected to serve as foreign ambassadors were put on hold by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, after the state’s junior senator called on the Department of Homeland Security to investigate Secret Service background leaks involving Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, a candidate for House Speaker.
Cotton placed the hold on Cassandra Butts, who was nominated for ambassador to the Bahamas; Azita Raji, for ambassador to Sweden; and Samuel Heins, for ambassador to Norway.
Chaffetz, who is the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, has been looking into allegations of abuses involving the U.S. Secret Service.
Cotton called on Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to “personally attend” to disciplining top Secret Service leaders — specifically including new Director Joseph Clancy — for the leak of personnel information on Chaffetz from the agency’s files.
An investigation by a top federal watchdog found that 45 Secret Service employees improperly accessed Chaffetz’s file in an agency database following a contentious hearing Chaffetz ran in March, and that an assistant director of the agency urged making the information public. It was published two days later in the Daily Beast and Washington Post.
In a speech Monday, Cotton said the release of the information was abusive at least and revolting at best.
“How could this happen? How could someone hired to change the culture of his agency be so indifferent to potential illegal activity and to such a constitutional affront to the legislature that he did nothing? Absolutely nothing until the press broke the story. And to make matters worse, Director Clancy misrepresented all of it to the Inspector General until the report was released last Wednesday,” Cotton said.
“The gravity of this scandal hasn’t thus far been met with appropriate action from the highest levels of the executive branch. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson stated last week that he’s ‘confident U.S. Secret Service Director Joe Clancy will take appropriate action to hold accountable those who violated any laws or policies of this Department.’ This response is woefully inadequate on multiple counts.”
Cotton also called for a criminal investigation into the people who accessed Chaffetz’s records.
“…if Secret Service personnel will violate the law to intimidate and retaliate against the chairman of their oversight committee, what might they do to a normal Arkansan, to the little guy who doesn’t have Chairman Chaffetz’s megaphone and position of influence? For that matter, what might renegade bureaucrats in other agencies do?” Cotton said.
Cotton said he is considering blocking more nominees if the Obama administration refuses to fully investigate and discipline Secret Service staff.
“When President Obama and Secretary Johnson take appropriate action, I will likewise take action and release these and future objections,” Cotton said.