As the House Judiciary Committee goes forward with its extensive calendar of hearings and investigations, the chairman issued a warning to Biden administration officials on Tuesday against continuing to obstruct Republican demands.
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio warned that Republicans, who are now in charge, are ready to utilize subpoena powers to demand answers from the administration in a series of letters to top officials on Tuesday.
The letters were sent to the following people: Ron Klain, chief of staff for the White House; Merrick Garland, attorney general; Christopher Wray, director of the FBI; Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of homeland security; Miguel Cardona, secretary of education; Steven Dettelbach, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and Anne Milgram, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
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The Biden administration, according to Mr. Jordan, “has evaded transparency and accountability for its mistakes for the past two years, has stonewalled Congress, and has refused to cooperate with simple document requests.” Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee have vowed to hold every agency responsible under the new majority and, if necessary, to compel answers for the American people.
As lawmakers prepare the framework for a number of investigations, Republicans on the Judiciary Committee have pounded top administration officials with a litany of requests for documents and testimony.
The committee wants to focus on the FBI’s alleged abuse of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants, the Justice Department’s alleged monitoring of parents at school board meetings, the FBI’s alleged invasion of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and the FBI’s alleged inflating of the domestic violent extremist threat.
In addition, Mr. Jordan has indicated that he intends to investigate President Biden’s role in his son Hunter Biden’s business affairs in conjunction with the inquiry being conducted by the House Oversight Committee.
Republicans on a number of other panels have recently requested the preservation of documents, laying the framework for the impending investigations.
The White House has put up barriers in the way of the onslaught of Republican-led oversight requests, telling Mr. Jordan and Rep. James Comer, the incoming Ohio Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, that they would have to resubmit their demands once the GOP officially took control of the House this month.
The two lawmakers lack the power to request papers from the administration until the new Congress convenes, according to White House attorney Richard Sauber.
In letters to the two new chairmen, Mr. Sauber stated that “Congress has not given [oversight] authority to individual members of Congress who are not committee chairmen, and the House has not done so under its existing rules.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Jordan characterized the letter as an effort to justify the administration’s years of disregard for earlier Republican demands. Nothing under federal law barred the White House from agreeing to our demands, he said, “apart from the constitutional and legal flaws inherent in the White House’s case.” He stated, “The administration’s stonewalling must end.
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