Congressman Gaetz Exposes Biden Harris Administration “Border Czar” Cover up to Help Harris Presidential Campaign

Last month, following Vice President Harris' denial of her involvement with the border crisis, Rep. Gaetz sent a letter to Secretary Mayorkasdemanding all correspondence from DHS that refers to Harris as the "border czar" by August 30th. According to documents obtained by a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requestfrom the Heritage's Oversight Project, the White House's Ian Sams got involved and apparently blocked the response. At the time he was doing this, Sams knew that within days, he would be moving to the Harris 2024 presidential campaign as a top spokesman. Sams' actions may have been violations of the Hatch Act, agency ethics rules, and campaign finance laws. Therefore, Rep. Gaetz's follow-up letter requests unredacted copies of the Sams' correspondence on this matter.

Full text of Congressman Gaetz's letter to Secretary Mayorkas can be found HERE. Additionally, exclusive coverage of the letter by Fox News can be found HERE.

LETTER TEXT

Secretary Mayorkas:

I am concerned that the good government work of your career employees-to respond in a timely fashion to a small but important request of a Member of Congress-was scuttled by a White House cover-up to assist candidate Kamala Harris in her campaign. The very staffer, Ian Sams, who blocked my oversight request is now a senior spokesman for the Harris campaign. At the time he was engaged in a cover-up for her using government resources, he already had lined up his job on her campaign, which he officially started less than two weeks later. This is shady.

On August 7, 2024, I sent you an oversight request, and that week, House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman Comer apparently sent you a similar oversight request, requesting similar sets of information in your possession, which are required by law to be released. My letter requested a very simple production of, firstly, "communications Office of the Vice President and any employee (including detailees) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), between March 24, 2021 and March 24, 2022, using the term 'czar,' 'border,' 'migration,' or 'immigration.'" An IT employee of DHS could collate and produce these documents in a matter of hours, if not minutes, and yet the August 30, 2024, deadline has come and gone without response. I, therefore, reiterate my document request. The American people know that Vice President Harris was appointed the "border czar" and bragged about her role, and I am confident that you have records that would again prove this.

More troubling, however, is the FOIA response that the Heritage Foundation Oversight Project has provided my office (attached as "Exhibit A" and available at https://oversight.heritage.org/GaetzLetterBorderCzar.pdf). This FOIA production proves that DHS front-office career employees did their job. They forwarded my request and actively worked to get a response out to me on time. In fact, the day before the due date, on August 29, 2024, they raised the issue again to political appointees. Kudos to them. But the reason they did not respond to my request, apparently, is that the White House got involved. Ian Sams was forwarded the oversight request, and his directives to your subordinates are redacted, but he stopped the oversight in its tracks, to protect his boss, possibly in violation of the Hatch Act, agency ethics rules, and campaign finance laws.

In addition to my outstanding request, please provide my office with unredacted copies of the Ian Sams correspondence on this matter to my office by October 25, 2024. Surely, you can produce one or two emails in two weeks.

Sincerely,

Matt Gaetz
Member of Congress

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