Lowey and Engel Statement on New OSC Probe Into Pompeo for Potential Hatch Act Violations

WASHINGTON – House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita M. Lowey (D-NY) and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot L. Engel (D-NY) today made the following statement:

“Our offices have confirmed that the Office of Special Counsel has launched a probe into potential Hatch Act violations tied to Secretary Pompeo’s speech to the Republican National Convention. This information comes on the heels of reporting that OSC is also looking into Secretary Pompeo’s stated commitment to rush out more of Hillary Clinton’s emails by Election Day and as the Secretary has misused State Department resources on his speech tour of swing states.

“As we get closer to both this year’s election and his own inevitable return to electoral politics, Mike Pompeo has grown even more brazen in misusing the State Department and the taxpayer dollars that fund it as vehicles for the Administration’s, and his own, political ambitions. The Department has repeatedly missed Congressional overseers’ deadlines for producing documents on his recent domestic speeches that will help us understand whether they were improper political activities. So we’re grateful to OSC—whom Mr. Pompeo can’t fire as he did the Inspector General—for looking into this matter.

“The State Department has a legal obligation under the Federal Records Act to create and retain documentation of the Department’s actions, including by the Secretary and his inner circle. Congress has every right to review those official records. Whether it’s before Secretary Pompeo’s departure or afterwards, the truth about this administration’s corruption will come out.”

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