Rep. Harman questions committee's probe of Cunningham

15 Dec 2005 // The ranking Democratic member of the House intelligence committee criticized the panel's Republican chairman Thursday for failing to assure that a committee investigation into former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham is "thorough, expeditious and bipartisan."

Two days after the former congressman's Nov. 28 guilty pleas to tax evasion and taking more than $2.4 million in bribes, the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., revoked Cunningham's access to classified information and announced a probe into his work on the committee between 2001 and 2005.
Congressional watchdogs have expressed outrage that Cunningham continued to have full access to national secrets during the five months he was under federal investigation, and that his security clearance was revoked only after he pleaded guilty.

There have been no allegations that the former congressman disclosed any national secrets, and his attorneys have promised full cooperation with the government during its investigation.

In a news release Thursday, Rep. Jane Harman, D-Venice, expressed frustration at what she said was Hoekstra's failure to keep his word to her that the investigation into Cunningham's access to national secrets would start quickly, and that it would be an extensive, bipartisan effort.

In the news release, Harman took issue with Hoekstra's decision to use the Republican-dominated committee's existing staff to conduct the probe, saying that move threatens to undermine the quality of the investigation.

Hoekstra could not be reached for comment Thursday. In an interview Wednesday with the North County Times, he said that the ultimate decision on how the investigation will be conducted falls to him as committee chairman. However, he added that he was taking suggestions from Harman and that Democratic members of the panel were being consulted.

In the news release, Harman said that for the investigation to be thorough and complete, the committee must bring in temporary staff members with experience as investigators.

Hinting that the investigation could turn into a partisan exercise and that the results could be less than complete, Harman insisted that those temporary staff members must be from both political parties.

She added that the investigative team's work must be supervised by the House counsel or the House inspector general.

"Existing staff cannot be expected to investigate their bosses," Harman stated.