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House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan announced a new probe on Friday into President Joe Biden following revelations that he was in possession of Obama-era classified documents, potentially in violation of federal law governing such materials.
In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, the Ohio Republican noted that it was his committee’s responsibility to conduct such “oversight” and added that he expected the Justice Department to cooperate. The Judiciary probe follows another by Rep. James Comer’s Oversight Committee investigation into the matter, as well as that of a special counsel appointed by Garland last week.
“On January 12, 2023, you appointed Robert Hur as Special Counsel to investigate these matters,” Jordan and Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) wrote. “The circumstances of this appointment raise fundamental oversight questions that the Committee routinely examines. We expect your complete cooperation with our inquiry.”
#BREAKING: @Jim_Jordan and @RepMikeJohnson launch first investigation into @JoeBiden’s classified documents scandal. pic.twitter.com/sR8E5J2ZTd
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) January 13, 2023
In the letter, Jordan also raised questions about the timing of the document disclosure earlier this month after learning that the first batch was discovered at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., just days before the midterm elections.
“It is unclear when the Department first came to learn about the existence of these documents, and whether it actively concealed this information from the public on the eve of the 2022 elections,” the two lawmakers wrote.
“It is also unclear what interactions, if any, the Department had with President Biden or his representatives about his mishandling of classified material. The Department’s actions here appear to depart from how it acted in similar circumstances,” the letter continued.
In addition, the chairman ripped Garland for approving an FBI raid on the Mar-a-Lago home of former President Donald Trump to retrieve classified documents the government knew well in advance that he had, but not authorizing a similar raid against Biden’s home in Delaware, where additional documents have been found as well.
“In fact, on August 8, 2022, despite the publicly available evidence of President Trump’s voluntary cooperation, you personally approved the decision to seek a warrant for excessive and unprecedented access to his private residence. On August 15, 2022, Committee Republicans wrote to you and FBI Director Christopher Wray requesting documents and information related to the FBI’s raid of President Trump’s residence,” the letter noted.
Garland has been briefed a number of times about the ongoing investigation into the matter by Chicago-based U.S. Attorney John Lausch Jr., one of the few holdovers from the presidency of Trump. Lausch, the attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, was appointed by Trump in November 2017.
“The documents were not the subject of any previous request or inquiry by the Archives,” Richard Sauber, special counsel to the White House, said in a Monday statement, according to Fox News. “Since that discovery, the President’s personal attorneys have cooperated with the Archives and the Department of Justice in process to ensure that any Obama-Biden Administration records are appropriately in the possession of the Archives.”
Fox News noted further:
The discovery echoes revelations last year that Trump had housed a trove of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home after leaving office. The FBI ultimately raided his residence to recover some 300 classified documents.
Trump himself was quick to make the comparison on social media Monday, and a number of other Republicans called for more information about the Biden documents.
“Why didn’t the ‘Justice’ Department announce the Highly Classified documents found in the Biden Office before the Election?” Trump asked on his Truth Social platform.
“Biden’s documents are HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL, many pertain to UKRAINE, where Hunter was ‘raking in the dough,’ and FUNDED BY CHINA, which gave $55 Million to Biden, through Penn, and probably had easy access,” he noted further.
Donald Trump Jr. also asked, “When will the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team storm one of Biden’s many vacation homes bought and paid for somehow by a lifetime of being a humble public servant?”
Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), who served as White House physician during part of Trump’s administration, also asked similar questions.
“It’s just been discovered that Biden had HIGHLY CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS that were improperly stored in one of his private offices. INCREDIBLE! WHERE is the FBI? WHERE is the dramatic raid? We have two systems of justice in this country: one for them and one for us,” he wrote on Truth Social.
