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Republican Jason Chaffetz, head of the House Oversight
Committee, said the Department of Homeland Security had declined
to cooperate.
"We therefore must take the regrettable step of compelling the
agents for interviews before the Committee,” he said in a
statement.
The move was criticized by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh
Johnson, who said he regretted that Chaffetz had taken "the
unprecedented and unnecessary step of subpoenaing two members of
the U.S. Secret Service," which is charged with protecting the
president.
Johnson said Chaffetz's assertion that DHS had been
uncooperative "is simply wrong." He added in his statement that
the Secret Service director testified before the committee last
week about the March 4 incident and that DHS had offered a
number of Secret Service personnel, including the agents under
subpoena, for interviews with committee staff.
Chaffetz did not identify the Secret Service personnel for whom
he was issuing subpoenas, but said the committee had requested
interviews with agents who could shed light not just on the
March 4 incident, "but also on why the Secret Service appears to
be systemically broken and in desperate need of both leadership
and reform."
The Secret Service has experienced a series of high-profile
security lapses. Former Director Julia Pierson stepped down in
October after a Sept. 19 breach in which a man carrying a knife
jumped the fence and ran into the executive mansion.
(Reporting by Peter Cooney; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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