Congressional Democrats Subpoena State Department Officials in Probe of 2019 Emergency Arms Sales to Gulf States
House and Senate Democratic leaders subpoenaed four State Department officials and released parts of an interview with a former official that the lawmakers say raise questions about the administration’s controversial military sales to Gulf states last year (see 1907150033 and 1907300027). The interview -- a July 24 testimony by former State Department official Charles Faulkner -- points to a “small group” of agency officials who were “determined to ignore legitimate humanitarian concerns ... to ram through more than $8 billion in arms sales,” according to an Aug. 3 joint press release from House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Bob Menendez, D.-N.J.
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The testimony partly focused on the firing of former State Department Inspector General Steve Linick, who had been investigating the arms sales. Faulkner also testified that agency leadership was “determined to see the sales go forward,” the press release said, and that State Department officials “weren’t surprised by the Saudis’ reckless use of U.S.-built weapons and the resulting loss of innocent life.”
The lawmakers subpoenaed Brian Bulatao, undersecretary for management; Marik String, the State Department’s acting legal adviser; Michael Miller, deputy assistant secretary for political-military affairs; and Toni Porter, a State Department senior adviser. The lawmakers also said they plan to release the full transcript of Faulkner’s testimony “as soon as possible.”
“The administration continues to cover up the real reasons for Mr. Linick’s firing by stonewalling the Committees’ investigation and refusing to engage in good faith,” the press release said. “That stonewalling has made today’s subpoenas necessary.” The State Department did not comment.