Sen. Hawley Warns DOJ and FBI Not to Destroy Documents

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) speaks during the Faith and Freedom Road to Majority conference in Washington on June 23, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee issued a warning on Dec. 4 to the heads of the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ), telling them not to dispose of records or documents that could indicate mismanagement or wrongdoing.

“I’m putting DOJ & FBI on notice,“ Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) wrote on X. ”Don’t shred a single document. Don’t delete a single file. Accountability is coming,” Hawley wrote on X.

Hawley’s post was accompanied by a more formal open letter addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, stating that he had received reports that records were already being destroyed.

“With sunlight now on the horizon, I’m not surprised by last-ditch efforts to stonewall the incoming administration. But those efforts will fail,” Hawley wrote.

He urged Garland and Wray to fire anyone responsible for destroying documents and  “preserve all Department and Bureau documents in anticipation of congressional investigations to come.”

Hawley also said in the letter that he intended to use his position on the Senate Judiciary Committee to ensure the two agencies are thoroughly investigated over what he called “sordid” actions during the Biden administration.

The senator’s letter referenced “bad-faith prosecutions of pro-life” protesters and allegations that the FBI planned to send undercover agents to traditional Latin Mass Catholic church services to monitor them for extremist tendencies ahead of the 2024 election.

Wray addressed the planned surveillance of Catholics during a meeting of the House Judiciary Committee in July 2023.

He said the memo referring to Catholic extremists, which leaked in February 2023, stemmed from a single field office in Richmond, Virginia, but went no further.

“As soon as I found out about it, I was aghast and ordered it withdrawn and removed from FBI systems,” he told Congress.

On Nov. 5, Hawley won his reelection bid against Democrat Lucas Kunce by 56 percent to 42 percent and will begin his second term on Jan. 3, 2025.

In addition to his work as a ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Hawley was a member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations during the 2024 session of Congress.

Hawley ended the letter by warning Wray and Garland to “prepare for the real justice to come.”

In an emailed statement to The Epoch Times, the FBI said its records are kept in accordance with retention schedules approved by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

“FBI records may not be destroyed without a NARA approved records schedule. In instances of anticipated or pending litigation or other inquiry, normal disposition practices (to include destruction or transfer to NARA) are halted until resolution of the litigation or inquiry,” the agency said.

The Epoch Times reached out to the DOJ for comment but received no response by publication time.