Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the new House Judiciary Committee chairman, resent several requests for outstanding documents and information to Biden administration officials Tuesday with a warning.
Noting that the Jan. 17 letter would be “the final time” the committee requested the information, Jordan added, “The Committee is prepared to resort to compulsory process, if necessary, to obtain this material.”
Similar letters were sent to White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, Attorney General Merrick Garland; Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas; Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) Director Steven Dettelbach; and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Anne Milgram.
Each letter, referencing the Judiciary Committee’s outstanding requests, asked that the officials “immediately comply in full.”
https://twitter.com/JudiciaryGOP/status/1615410536727908353
Letters and Leaks
In the previous Congress, Jordan served as the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, spearheading Republican efforts to probe into the actions of Biden administration officials, including attempts to regulate firearms, the alleged political bias of FBI employees, the Justice Department’s investigation of parents who expressed their frustrations at school board meetings, and other matters.But while the committee sent several letters requesting documents, information, and in-person testimony on those topics, Jordan’s Jan. 17 letters establish that, as of yet, the administration has been uncooperative with those oversight attempts.
“[T]he Biden White House provided a perfunctory letter that discounted Congress’s constitutional oversight authorities, failed to produce any documents or information requested, and declined to address any matters of substance,” Jordan recounted. “The White House leaked this letter to the media, and briefed at least one reporter on it, before transmitting the letter to the Committee at 4:34 a.m.—severely undercutting the White House’s purported commitment to working with us in ‘good faith.’”
The White House’s letter, written by White House Special Counsel Richard Sauber, was obtained exclusively by Politico and published at 5 a.m. on Dec. 29, just 26 minutes after the committee had received it.
“Congress has not delegated such [oversight] authority to individual members of Congress who are not committee chairmen, and the House has not done so under its current Rules,” Sauber wrote in the missive, stating that the previous requests would need to be resubmitted after Jordan became committee chairman.
That reasoning, however, did not hold water with Jordan.
“Setting aside the constitutional and legal fallacies inherent in the White House’s argument, nothing in federal law prevented the White House from voluntarily complying with our requests,” the congressman noted.
“In addition, to the extent the White House believed it was bound only to comply with requests from committee chairmen, the White House has had notice since at least November 16, 2022, that a returning Republican Member would lead the Judiciary Committee in the 118th Congress and has taken no steps to comply with our outstanding requests in that time,” Jordan continued.
Investigations
Last week, the Republican-controlled House approved the formation of a new investigative subcommittee to probe into the “weaponization of the federal government.”The panel is reportedly being modeled after the 1975 Senate Church Committee that investigated the abuses of U.S. intelligence agencies.
But while Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) has described the subcommittee as “dangerous” and “a violation of the separation of powers,” Jordan, who is expected to chair the panel, said it was necessary to eliminate the appearance of a double standard between how conservative and liberal Americans are treated by the federal government.
“Americans are sick and tired of it,” he added. “And what we want—we don’t want to go after anyone. We just want it to stop, and we want to respect the First Amendment to the Constitution that the greatest country in the world has.”
A spokesperson for ATF said the agency “responds to all Congressional correspondence and will likewise be responding to Chairman Jordan’s letter.” The DEA declined to comment. The White House and the other letter recipients did not return inquiries from The Epoch Times.