Donald Trump’s latest pick to run the Department of Homeland Security is already facing serious questions—after a report resurfaced claims that Sen. Markwayne Mullin may have violated federal firearms law by allowing a convicted felon to keep guns at his business.
According to a report from The Washington Post, Mullin once employed a man with a felony record at his Oklahoma company, Mullin Plumbing, and allegedly allowed him to store firearms on the premises despite knowing about his criminal past.
The employee, Timothy L. Saylor, had prior felony convictions that legally barred him from possessing firearms. But Saylor told the Post that Mullin knew exactly who he was dealing with.
“Markwayne knew I was a felon,” Saylor said in an interview. “Of course he knew. Because I told him.”
That claim cuts directly against the explanation Mullin gave years ago when the issue surfaced during his first campaign for Congress in 2012. At the time, Mullin insisted he didn’t know about Saylor’s criminal history and said he hadn’t run a background check because Saylor had already been working at the business before Mullin’s company acquired it.
But Saylor’s account suggests something very different: that Mullin was aware of the felony record and allowed the guns anyway.
Under federal law, knowingly providing firearms to a convicted felon—or enabling them to possess weapons—can itself be a crime. According to The Washington Post, Mullin told authorities at the time that he had given Saylor guns “to clean.”
Despite the circumstances, Mullin was never charged, court records show.
Now the story is resurfacing just as Trump taps the Oklahoma senator to lead the Department of Homeland Security—the massive federal agency responsible for everything from border security to counterterrorism.
Mullin is stepping in to replace former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, whose tenure imploded under a wave of controversy before she was abruptly pushed out.
Now, critics are pointing out that his own record includes unresolved questions about whether he once helped a convicted felon illegally possess firearms.
For the agency tasked with enforcing federal law and protecting national security, that’s not exactly the clean résumé you’d expect.
But in Trump’s Washington, controversy often seems to be less a disqualifier—and more like a prerequisite.
