Senate Finance Committee presses nominee Rodney Scott for documents on 2010 CBP custody death

Rodney Scott, President Trump’s nominee to lead U.S. Customs and Border Protection, faced repeated calls at a Senate Finance Committee hearing for documents and fuller explanations about a 2010 death in CBP custody at the San Ysidro port of entry.

The committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Ron Wyden, said the department had provided a one-paragraph defense from Secretary Kristi Noem but produced none of the underlying records he requested. "The secretary responded with a letter that said Mr. Scott was basically a perfect angel and all the allegations against him are false, but produced 0 documents that I requested to back it up," Wyden said during his opening remarks.

Why it matters: Wyden and other senators said records are necessary to evaluate whether Scott’s administrative actions during the Hernandez Rojas investigation were appropriate and lawful. Wyden and other senators pointed to a letter from a former senior CBP internal affairs official, James Wong, who wrote the committee raising "grave concerns" about how that investigation was handled and calling it a cover-up.

Committee…