A senior Department of Homeland Security official “created an appearance of favoritism and special access” by intervening on behalf of a company run by Hillary Clinton’s brother, a finding that contradicts the official’s testimony during his Senate confirmation hearing.
The issue pertained to the EB-5 program, which provides visas to immigrants who invest in the United States.
“In three matters pending before USCIS, Mr. Mayorkas, now deputy secretary of DHS, communicated with stakeholders on substantive issues outside of the normal adjudicatory process, and intervened with the career USCIS staff in ways that benefited the stakeholders,” the DHS inspector general reports. “Regardless of Mr. Mayorkas’ motives, his intervention in these matters created significant resentment in USCIS. This resentment was not isolated to career staff adjudicating within the EB-5 program, but extended to senior managers and attorneys responsible for the broader USCIS mission and programs.”
The report “specifically focused on allegations of special treatment afforded to a Las Vegas casino project championed by Sen. Harry Reid, then the Senate majority leader, and an electric car enterprise led by Terry McAuliffe, who is now Virginia governor, and involving Anthony Rodham, the brother of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,” according to ABC..
The inspector general notes that “an extraordinary number of DHS employees” blew the whistle on Mayorkas. “It is also quite unusual that a significant percentage of the witnesses we interviewed would talk to us only after being assured that their identities would remain confidential.”
Senate Democrats confirmed Mayorkas to the second-highest post in DHS despite the allegations, which were being investigated when he testified before a Senate subcommittee panel ahead of his confirmation.
“I have never ever in my career exercised undue influence to influence the outcome of a case,” Mayorkas said under questioning from Democratic senator Claire McCaskill in 2013. “I have never based my decisions on who brings the case, but rather on the facts and the law. I have taken in my life oaths of office and each and every day, morning day and night, I have lived by those oaths.”
Former senator Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) then the ranking Republican on the committee, boycotted the hearing. “Holding this hearing in light of an active investigation into serious, relevant allegations of professional misconduct by the nominee, and over the objections of the ranking member and others, appears to be virtually without precedent in the history of this or any other Senate committee,” Coburn said in a statement.
Mayorkas told ABC that he “disagree[s] with the report,” but will certainly learn from it and this process.”