The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee issued a congressional subpoena to the Department of Justice Monday, requesting witnesses and documents for its investigation into the shooting at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas.
The subpoena, issued to Attorney General Eric Holder, requires the information be turned over by April 26 — next week. Defense Secretary Robert Gates received a similar subpoena requesting testimony and documents from the Department of Defense.
“Since November 13, 2009, we have sent four formal request letters for information to DOD and two to DOJ. Our staff has engaged in lengthy but ultimately unproductive discussions with your departments,” Homeland Security panel Chairman Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and ranking Republican Susan Collins of Maine said in a letter to the two officials that accompanies the subpoenas. “Our efforts have been met with delay, the production of little that was not already publicly available, and shifting reasons why the departments are withholding the documents and witnesses that we have requested.”
On Nov. 5, 2009, Army Maj. Nidal Hasan opened fire in a building at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 and wounding 30 people. Hasan, who was set to deploy to Iraq and had allegedly been in contact with an imam associated with al-Qaeda, has been charged with premeditated murder.
A week after the attack, the committee opened an investigation into the shooting and the agencies’ handling of Hasan. In several letters of the past six months, the panel sought Hasan’s personnel records from the DOD and requested to interview FBI and DOD agents who investigated the shooting.
In a letter to the committee last week, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich and Elizabeth King, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Office of Legislative Affairs, said that allowing DOD or DOJ line employees to testify before the committee would violate longstanding department rules and could interfere with the criminal prosecution of Hasan.
The subpoena to Holder and the full text of the letter are embedded below.
