Chaffetz, Cummings to TSA: Comply with subpoena or face ‘serious consequences’

The Transportation Security Administration’s acting administrator has been threatened with fines and imprisonment for failing to comply with a congressional subpoena regarding Office of Special Council whistleblower retaliation investigations.

In a May 2 letter, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and Ranking Member Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., followed up on a Committee-issued subpoena duces tecum delivered to TSA’s Huban Gowadia on March 17.  

The subpoena required Gowadia to appear and produce documents by 12 p.m. on March 31, 2017, as part of proceedings to address transparency issues, employee misconduct, disciplinary processes and an alleged culture of retaliation at TSA. 

However, Gowadia didn’t comply. Instead, the Department of Homeland Security’s acting general counsel sent a letter saying it was entitled to withhold documents on individual personnel cases on the ground they were protected by attorney-client privilege. 

In their letter Reps. Chaffetz and Cummings say the House of Representatives does not recognize nondisclosure privileges associated with the common law, their Committee is now separately and independently investigating whether TSA is abusing attorney-client privilege to avoid oversight, and a further failure to comply with legal obligations immediately could have "serious consequences." 

Gowadia — as well as Steven Colon, acting assistant administrator for the TSA Office of Professional Responsibility, and TSA Chief Counsel Francine Kerner — have been instructed to make themselves available for transcribed interviews by no later than May 16.