House committee subpoenas Mike Pompeo's dog walker and three other aides

Two House committees subpoena Mike Pompeo’s alleged dog walker and three other aides they accuse of ‘stonewalling’ probe of Trump’s firing of the State Department inspector general

  • House Oversight, House Foreign Affairs, and Senate Foreign Relations chairs accused aides of ‘stonewalling’ 
  • One subpoena goes to longtime Pompeo advisor Brian Bulatao, the undersecretary of State for management
  • Another went to Toni Porter, ID’d as the official at the center of an IG’s probe into whether the secretary of state had a taxpayer employee walk his dog
  • Pompeo asked President Trump to fire IG Steve Linick, which the president did in May amid multiple agency probes

A pair of House Committees issued subpoenas Monday that would require testimony and depositions from top aides to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo – including the senior advisor alleged to have walked his dog and performed other errands.

House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Rep. Eliot Engel and House Oversight Committee chair Carolyn Maloney, both Democrats, fired off the subpoenas Monday as part of an ongoing probe into the firing of Inspector General Steve Linick.

Pompeo asked President Trump to fire Linick, who was probing a variety of State Department matters, including allegations that aide Toni Porter walked Pompeo’s dog and did other tasks while on the government payroll. He also was probing a Saudi arms sale and allegations regarding Pompeo’s wife. 

Mike Pompeo is pictured with new puppy Mercer in a photo shared to Instagram. Two House panels have subpoenaed a quartet of State Department officials, including a senior advisor alleged to have walked Pompeo's dog

Mike Pompeo is pictured with new puppy Mercer in a photo shared to Instagram. Two House panels have subpoenaed a quartet of State Department officials, including a senior advisor alleged to have walked Pompeo’s dog

‘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,’ Engel and Maloney wrote, in a statement joined by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-N.J.).

‘That stonewalling has made today’s subpoenas necessary,’ they wrote.

The aides the panels subpoenaed are Bulatao, the undersecretary of State for Management, Marik String, Acting State Department Legal Adviser, Michael Miller, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, and Toni A. Porter, Senior Adviser.

Pompeo’s agency has resisted repeated attempts by the Democratic House to obtain information, in keeping general administration resistance to Democratic inquiries. 

Porter has been identified as the government official at the center of an inspector general’s probe into whether the secretary of state had a taxpayer employee walk his dog and perform other errands. 

Longtime Mike Pompeo aide Toni Porter has been identified as the government employee whose role allegedly doing personal business for the secretary of state was being probed by an inspector general

Longtime Mike Pompeo aide Toni Porter has been identified as the government employee whose role allegedly doing personal business for the secretary of state was being probed by an inspector general

Brian J. Bulatao arrives for a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in Dirksen Building on his nomination to be Undersecretary of State for management on July 18, 2018. He also followed Pompeo to the CIA

Brian J. Bulatao arrives for a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in Dirksen Building on his nomination to be Undersecretary of State for management on July 18, 2018. He also followed Pompeo to the CIA

Toni Porter serves as a senior advisor to Pompeo

Toni Porter serves as a senior advisor to Pompeo

Trump announced in May that he was firing the inspector general, Steve Linick, pictured, an Obama administration appointee whose office was critical of what it saw as political bias in the State Department's management

Trump announced in May that he was firing the inspector general, Steve Linick, pictured, an Obama administration appointee whose office was critical of what it saw as political bias in the State Department’s management

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.)

Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.)

Two House Democratic-run committees subpoenaed the State Department aides

The Kansas City Star reported Linick was investigating the role Porter, a senior advisor to Pompeo, played and ‘whether she as a political appointee was conducting Pompeo’s personal business on government time.’ 

Bulatao attended West Point with Pompeo, then joined Pompeo at the CIA where he served as Chief Operating Officer. 

Politico reported that Linick told Congress Bulatao sought to push him off sensitive investigations. 

The IG also was investigating the administration’s May 2019 emergency declaration to provide $8 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries despite a vote in Congress against it.  

Pompeo in June in a letter to Congress accused Linick of ‘strange and erratic behavior’ and of a ‘failure to perform his duties over a series of many months.’ 

Linick said he was not given a reason for why he was forced out. 

source: dailymail.co.uk