The top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is pushing for more information on the October ambush in Niger that left four U.S. soldiers dead.
In a letter to committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) asks him to join in requesting documents from the White House.
“Since you refuse to seek a briefing from the White House, I now request that you at least join me in requesting documents from the White House on the deadly ambush in Niger — a step you took without hesitation when you served as the chairman of the Select Committee on Benghazi,” Cummings wrote in the letter to Gowdy, dated Wednesday.
“When Congress investigates deadly attacks against U.S. service members overseas, our actions should be conducted without regard to political considerations — they should not intensify when the president is a Democrat but then virtually evaporate when he is a Republican.”
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At issue is the Oct. 4 ambush in Niger that killed Staff Sgts. Bryan Black, Jeremiah Johnson and Dustin Wright and Sgt. La David Johnson. The incident left lawmakers shocked, with several admitting they were unaware the United States had any troops in the West African country, and elicited a wave of controversy in how President Trump interacted with Johnson’s widow.
U.S. Africa Command (Africom) has been investigating unanswered questions, including whether the soldiers’ mission changed mid-operation and how Johnson became separated from the rest. Officials originally said the investigation would wrap up in January.
Defense Secretary James Mattis, who visited Africom headquarters in Germany last week, told reporters he was briefed on the timeline for the release of the report, which was described as being “thousands of pages.” But Mattis provided no additional specifics.
Africom commander Gen. Thomas Waldhauser “gave me the timeline when he expects to be done with it, and when he expects to forward it to me, and the timeline will include the briefings to the families, the briefings to Capitol Hill and the briefings, then, to everyone else,” Mattis said Saturday. “But the families need to know what we found first, and then Congress will be informed, and then we’ll bring it out.”
In his letter, Cummings said Pentagon officials were unable to answer committee members’ questions in a November briefing. Because of that, he said, “it is now clear” that “we need information that only the White House can provide.”
Specifically, Cummings wants documents on any orders from the president or White House staff to the Pentagon regarding the ambush or the response; when the president learned of the deaths; when the president learned that Johnson was missing; who authorized the operation; and what legal authorities were used to justify the U.S. mission in Niger.