L: R: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik R: Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Image
Ohio Republican Congressman and Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan announced an investigation into President Joe Biden’s classified documents issue with a letter that also offered a defense of ex-President Donald Trump.
Since news broke Monday that Biden’s lawyers discovered a small number of documents — from his time as VP — bearing classified markings while clearing out a private office last fall and immediately reported and returned the documents to the federal government, the story has become a media firestorm with each new development.
On Wednesday, it was revealed that Biden aides discovered more such documents at a second location, and on Thursday morning, the White House counsel released a statement with more details. Later Thursday, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Hur and revealed one more document was discovered.
The Biden matter has drawn direct comparisons — particularly among conservatives — with the investigation that exploded onto the national radar with the raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort home. Others have
On Friday, Jordan announced his committee’s probe — its first of the new Congress — with a letter to AG Garland that suggested Biden and the Justice Department may have been in league and took the Trump comparison in a different direction from others. Some excerpts:
- “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.”
- “On January 12, 2023, you appointed Robert Hur as Special Counsel to investigate these matters. The circumstances of this appointment raise fundamental oversight questions that the Committee routinely examines. We expect your complete cooperation with our inquiry.”
- “On January 12, 2023, you appointed Robert Hur as Special Counsel to investigate these matters,” they wrote. “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. 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 appearto 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.”
- “The Department and FBI have failed to sufficiently comply with this request. Our requests remain outstanding.”
The White House has steadfastly maintained they’re protecting the DoJ’s independence and have limited comment because of the “ongoing process” underway. There is ample publicly available reporting showing that Trump did not cooperate with the government’s efforts to retrieve documents from him, but rather interfered with and obstructed it.