A recent family outing Vice President JD Vance took for his 41st birthday is coming under renewed scrutiny as Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff launches a new probe into a federal request to raise the level of a river to accommodate his kayak trip.
In a letter first shared with NBC News, Schiff, of California, requests information about the move, which he calls “unjustified and frivolous.”
“I write to you to express serious concerns regarding the potential abuse of power exercised by Vice President Vance and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) on August 2, in which the Secret Service directed USACE to change the outflow of Ohio’s Caesar Creek Lake for a recreational boat outing for the Vice President’s birthday,” Schiff wrote.
The letter, which is addressed to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; Adam Telle, the assistant secretary of the Army for civil works; and Secret Service Director Sean Curran, requests answers to over a half-dozen questions by Sept. 5.
The Associated Press and other news outlets reported this month that the Army Corps of Engineers increased outflows from Caesar Creek Lake to the Little Miami River, where the Vances were kayaking, “to support safe navigation of U.S. Secret Service personnel."
A spokesperson for Vance, Taylor Van Kirk, told the AP that Vance was unaware of the decision to raise the river. Van Kirk said at the time: “The Secret Service often employs protective measures without the knowledge of the Vice President or his staff, as was the case last weekend.”
The Secret Service, in a statement Friday, agreed that Vance's office was not involved in its decision to raise water levels.
“It was operationally necessary to adjust water levels to accommodate the motorized watercraft used by the Secret Service, local law enforcement, and emergency responders," the Secret Service said. "These decisions were made solely by the agents during our standard advance planning process and did not involve the Office of the Vice President.”
In the letter, Schiff asks for confirmation that Vance's office was informed of the decision and, then, why he was "not informed of this planned manipulation of public resources for his personal benefit."
Schiff also cites the Trump administration’s decision during the Los Angeles fires to release billions of gallons of water from two California reservoirs that were not positioned to help put out the wildfires.
“With the most recent act at Caesar Creek Lake, the Trump administration is providing further evidence of its willingness to exploit public resources for the personal and political benefit of administration officials,” Schiff wrote. “I hope that the public scrutiny of the Caesar Creek Lake water release will refocus the Army Corps on its mission to deliver vital engineering solutions that secure the country, energize the economy, and reduce risk from disasters.”
Schiff is being investigated himself by the Trump administration. The Justice Department last week appointed a "special attorney" to investigate allegations of mortgage fraud, which Schiff has denied, suggesting the investigation is political. President Donald Trump was consistently a target of Schiff’s investigations during his first term, with Schiff playing key parts in both of his impeachments.
