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Hours after a U.S. Army veteran drove a truck into a crowd, killing 15 and injuring at least 35 others in New Orleans on New Year’s Day, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., called on Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray to publicly testify before they leave office later this month.
“They must give a full account of this attack and any departmental failures related to the incident,” Hawley wrote in a letter to Senate Homeland Security Chair-elect Rand Paul on Wednesday.
Hawley cited a post on X referencing a Fox News story that said the Ford truck used in the New Orleans attack was rented and crossed into the U.S. from Mexico two days earlier. The FBI, however, identified the truck’s driver as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. citizen and Army veteran from Texas.
“Until January 20, the American people remain at risk unless the outgoing administration is held to account for policy changes that have made this country less safe,” Hawley said, adding that Mayorkas and Wray skipped an oversight hearing in late 2023 to discuss “threats to the homeland.”
Spectrum News has reached out to the FBI and Department of Homeland Security for comment.
The FBI said it is investigating the attack as an act of terrorism. “We are aggressively running down all leads to identify any possible associates of the subject,” the agency said in a statement Wednesday.
