DOJ Refuses to Release Information on Biden Documents Probe to House Republicans

Attorney General Merrick Garland looks on as President Joe Biden speaks about crime prevention at the White House in Washington, on June 23, 2021. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday stonewalled a request from the House Judiciary Committee to provide more information about the special counsel investigation into President Joe Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified documents, saying that doing so would risk compromising the entire probe.

The response came two weeks after Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who chairs the Republican-majority House panel, demanded in a letter that the DOJ hand over all documents and communications surrounding Biden’s case, including those related to the appointment of a special counsel.

Jordan’s letter asked for “non-public information that is central to the ongoing Special Counsel investigation,” the DOJ said, noting that it is the department’s “longstanding policy” to “maintain the confidentiality of such information regarding open matters.”

“Disclosures to Congress about active investigations risk jeopardizing those investigations and creating the appearance that Congress may be exerting improper political pressure or attempting to influence Department decisions in certain cases,” the DOJ statement to Jordan reads. “Judgments about whether and how to pursue a matter are, and must remain, the exclusive responsibility of the Department.”

Russell Dye, a spokesman for Jordan, said the DOJ’s unwillingness to cooperate is worrying.

“It’s concerning, to say the least, that the Department is more interested in playing politics than cooperating,” Dye said in a statement.

“Our Members are rightly concerned about the Justice Department’s double standard here, after all, some of the Biden documents were found at a think tank that’s received funds from communist China,” Dye said, referring to classified materials discovered at Biden’s former office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington. The Center is sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania, which has been accused of taking in millions of dollars from Chinese sources prior to the Center’s opening in 2017.

The UPenn has repeatedly denied such accusations, saying that it has never “solicited any gifts for the Penn Biden Center” from any Chinese or other foreign entity.

It’s unclear whether China has ever had access to the classified documents Biden left there.

With the DOJ’s response, the question now comes down to whether Jordan will use his subpoena power to get the information he wants. Jordan previously said that he was “definitely” considering that as an option.

“We'll see, but we’re definitely looking at asking for documents via subpoena,” he told CNN congressional correspondent Manu Raju. “But we don’t know whether that will happen yet.”

Last week, lawyers for former Vice President Mike Pence reported that they had found “a small number” of classified documents at his Indiana home. They said Pence himself elected to do the search after learning of the classified documents that had been discovered at President Joe Biden’s Delaware residence.

As early as November 2022, Biden’s lawyers found classified files at the president’s former office at the Penn Biden Center. In December, additional documents were found at his Delaware home. Neither discovery was made public until Jan. 9, when the media broke the story, and the White House confirmed it.

Prior to that, the FBI raided former President Donald Trump’s resort in Palm Beach, Florida, seizing boxes of classified materials that had been stored there since the end of his first term.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed Jack Smith as a special counsel to investigate Trump and Robert Hur as a special counsel to investigate Biden. No special counsel so far has been appointed in the case of Pence.