CNN reports that the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection is seeking—but so far not requiring—testimony from Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli, two unlawfully appointed officials from the previous administration. Wolf unlawfully served as acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Cuccinelli was unlawfully serving at both DHS and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

While the committee has previously asked the National Archives for documents concerning Wolf, the report said they’re “the first known DHS officials to have been contacted by the committee.” The fact is these are two men we 100% need to hear from because they’re both corrupt sleazebags who have consistently demonstrated throughout their unlawful tenures the lengths they’ll go to in service of their corrupt president. Just look at the records.

I mean, first of all, the two motherfuckers should never have been in their positions, because the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) in 2020 concluded that both were unlawfully appointed at DHS. Cuccinelli served in not one, but two unlawfully appointed positions after a federal judge that same year ruled he’d also been illegally appointed to USCIS. Congressional leaders would demand they vacate their offices following the GAO report, but resign they did not—that would require the two actually feel some sense of shame.

Now that that’s cleared up, we really need to hear from Unlawful Chad in particular because that one really turned up the crank on the corruption dial in the final stage of the previous administration. Recall the notorious naturalization ceremony at the White House as part of the Republican National Convention, a stunt blasted by experts as “flagrant violation of law,” Daily Kos’ Kerry Eleveld wrote at the time. A number of immigrants sworn in as U.S. citizens during that ceremony would later say they had no idea what the fuck was going on.

Wolf tried using the same excuse, eye roll. We would later find out that during that same summer, DHS “concocted bogus intelligence blaming Antifa for violence” at the Portland protests, Daily Kos’ Dave Neiwert wrote earlier this month. He noted that “senior DHS leadership pushed unfounded conspiracy theories about antifascists, encouraged the contractors they hired to violate protesters’ constitutional rights, and made spurious connections, based on no real evidence, between protesters who engaged in criminal activity.” 

Then just days before the 2020 election, Wolf embarked on a taxpayer-funded campaign tour in support of the previous president so blatantly corrupt that the Office of Special Counsel’s Hatch Act unit opened an investigation following a request from an independent federal watchdog. That request also name-checked Cuccinelli. It’s unclear where that probe stands, though other officials with the previous administration have been (lightly) disciplined for violations.

Meanwhile, Ken signed a deal with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ’s union just one day before President Biden’s inauguration, purporting that policy changes by the DHS had to be cleared with the likes of corrupt Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The Biden administration would do the right thing by canceling the ridiculous document. “DHS will make policy decisions in accordance with the law and based on what’s best for national security, public safety, and border security while upholding our nation’s values,” a spokesperson told CBS News.

CNN reports the Jan. 6 committee “could be interested in speaking with Wolf and Cuccinelli about any influence the White House or others acting in concert with the White House may have exerted on DHS leadership and its agencies as part of a push to overturn the 2020 election results,” including a report that Rudy Guiliani “asked him whether the department could seize voting machines in certain states to be reexamined for evidence of widespread voter fraud.” CNN reports that Cuccinelli told the outlet DHS had no such authority. But the record shows these men were already doing plenty of things they had no authority to do. Haul ’em in.