Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chair of the House Oversight Committee, subpoenaed the Department of Homeland Security on Monday after whistleblower information revealed an internal employee group chat discussing “serious concerns” about Gov. Tim Walz’s, D-Minn., ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
“[T]he Committee has recently received whistleblower disclosures informing the Committee of serious concern among Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel regarding a longstanding connection between the CCP and Minnesota Governor Timothy James Walz,” Comer wrote in the subpoena letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. “Specifically, through whistleblower disclosures, the Committee has learned of a non-classified, Microsoft Teams group chat among DHS employees—titled ‘NST NFT Bi-Weekly Sync’—that contains information about Governor Walz that is relevant to the Committee’s investigation. The Committee has also learned that further relevant information regarding Governor Walz has been memorialized in both classified and unclassified documents in the control of DHS.”
Comer is seeking records from the group chat from July 1 to the present day as well as relevant intelligence reports “from November 2023 to present,” as noted in an accompanying Monday press release.
The subpoena follows the start of an August probe into Walz’s “extensive engagement” with the CCP.
The committee launched a “government-wide” investigation earlier this year investigating the CCP’s “ongoing efforts to target, influence, and infiltrate every sector and community in the United States,” and has learned of efforts to influence subnational politicians, “including state governors,” according to the Monday press release.
“[I]f a state governor and major political party’s nominee
