OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The Department of Justice has signaled that it would not give Republican Rep. Jim Jordan and the House Judiciary Committee all of the information they have requested to conduct oversight of the department because, it said, it cannot share information about ongoing investigations.
But the Department said it would negotiate in “good faith” with Republicans as they conduct oversight of the Department of Justice, Fox News reported.
“Consistent with longstanding policy and practice, any oversight requests must be weighed against the Department’s interests in protecting the integrity of its work,” Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legislative Affairs Carlos Felipe Uriarte said in response to a request from Rep. Jordan.
“The Department’s obligation to ‘protect the government’s ability to prosecute fully and fairly’ is vital to the Executive Branch’s core constitutional function to investigate and prosecute criminal matters,” he said.
“Your January 17 requests — made now in your position as Chairman — initiate the constitutionally mandated accommodation process,” he said. “Under this process, the Legislative and Executive Branches have a constitutional obligation to negotiate in good faith to meet the informational needs of Congress while protecting the institutional interests of the Executive Branch.”
“We believe that good-faith negotiations will enable us to meet the Committee’s needs while protecting the Department’s institutional interests,” the assistant attorney general said.
“As President Reagan explained in his 1982 directive on responding to congressional requests for information, the ‘tradition of accommodation’ should be ‘the primary means of resolving conflicts between the branches,’” he said.
The Republican representative sent his request last week.
“We are conducting oversight of the Justice Department’s actions with respect to former Vice President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, including the apparently unauthorized possession of classified material at a Washington, D.C., private office and in the garage of his Wilmington, Delaware, residence,” he and Rep. Mike Johnson said in a letter to Garland.
“On January 12, 2023, you appointed Robert Hur as Special Counsel to investigate these matters,” they said. “The circumstances of this appointment raise fundamental oversight questions that the Committee routinely examines. We expect your complete cooperation with our inquiry.”
“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,” Jordan said. “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.”
“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,” it said.
“The Department and FBI have failed to sufficiently comply with this request,” it said. “Our requests remain outstanding.”
Jordan suggested “something is up” with the probe because of a new interest in the story by many of the same media outlets that initially dismissed reports of corruption evidence stemming from materials and emails obtained from a laptop he reportedly abandoned at a computer repair store in Delaware in 2019.
“Well, what happened to that is you had 51 intelligence officers sign a letter saying that this Hunter Biden story was Russian misinformation when it wasn’t, and that changed — I think anyone can make a credible argument that that altered the outcome of the election and we no longer have Donald Trump in the White House because he was doing that, he was pushing back on China for the first time. And now, we have Joe Biden there and it’s exactly the opposite direction,” Jordan said.
“So that’s what happened. That’s why this is all connected because the influence of big media, big tech, and big government in impacting our election — I think we said this last week, Sean. My colleagues had this in the committee a few weeks ago, Matt Gaetz. He said, when will the FBI stay out of elections and let us, the people, decide? In 2016, they went after Trump’s campaign, 2018, it was a Mueller investigation, 2020, they suppressed the Hunter Biden story, 2022, 91 days before the midterm election, they raid his home, and now, just two weeks ago, three days after he announces for the 2024 race, they name a special counsel and it’s not just anybody, it’s Jack Smith and the record that he has of weaponizing the government to go after the people,” Jordan continued.
“It sure looks like Joe Biden was involved,” Jordan added. “So, my, how this story has changed. And now, we find out these text messages and emails that link the entire family, not just Hunter and Joe and — but also uncle, the — Joe’s brother, James Biden, is involved in this as well.”
