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Peters and Paul continued to press Mullin about special assignments and international travel, and invited Mullin to speak with senators in a secure location about the classified work he said he did.
“You brought this up that you were on a super secret mission that you can’t tell us about,” Paul said.
Peters said Mullin has not been forthcoming with the committee about his overseas work and said his story about it “always seems to, kind of, change.”
“Candor, honesty, transparency are absolutely critical particularly at this time to try to build trust as the secretary of Homeland Security,” the Michigan senator said.
Peters said he asked the FBI about the classified work that Mullin said he participated in and was told that he is not named in any classified document that the government has.
“We want to know what this supposed classified work was. I have real questions about it,” Peters said.
Still, Mullin told senators he participated in “official travel and it was a classified trip.”
“It wasn’t a mission,” he said. “It was official travel with specific fact finding just like any official travel is, that they wanted clarification on.”
Mullin told the panel that only he and three others knew about the activities, which he said was a “special program” in the House, and would need permission in order to discuss it with senators.
“I have zero issue with talking about it,” Mullin said. “I don’t have clearance to talk about this this afternoon.”
He also said the work was within his official duties but declined to say who assigned it or where the travel was to.
“It’s a little difficult for us to go ask about a program that has no name, and we have nobody that we know to talk to about it,” Paul said. “I don’t know how we would begin doing this without your cooperation.”
Mullin did tell senators the work took place while he was a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, prompting Peters to retort, “it was an Energy and Commerce top secret effort.”
Paul also said he asked the FBI about whether Mullin did work for the CIA, Pentagon or other intelligence agencies, and was told that if he did classified work, it would be in a separate folder that senators could view privately.
“It’s confusing to us because there may have been some papers that said your official trips were excluded,” the chairman said. “I don’t know which ones were or weren’t, but you’ve now mentioned today that you have activities that you’ve done.”
A vote on Mullin’s nomination is expected to take place Thursday, and while Paul said he was willing to hold the vote, he could also postpone it to ensure senators receive the necessary information about Mullin’s travel.
“If you’re doing something that important, really it probably ought to be revealed and discussed,” he said.
