A top House Republican urged the chairman of the Democratic-led House Judiciary Committee to use Attorney General William Barr’s planned July testimony as a chance to carry out oversight on the “weaponization” of the Obama Justice Department to target now-President Trump.
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio sent a four-page letter to Chairman Jerry Nadler of New York on Friday, telling him he should take advantage of Barr’s appearance to look into the alleged misdeeds conducted during the Trump-Russia investigation.
“The Attorney General’s appearance is also an opportunity for the Committee to conduct oversight of the Obama-Biden Administration’s weaponization of the Justice Department and intelligence community against the Trump campaign,” Jordan wrote. “In the past several months, we have learned shocking details about how the Obama-Biden Administration used its Justice Department and intelligence community to target the Trump campaign.”
During a hearing that looked into Barr’s alleged politicization of the Justice Department earlier this week, which included a focus on the prosecution of longtime Trump friend Roger Stone, Nadler claimed, “Mr. Barr’s actions make clear that in his Department of Justice, the president’s allies get special treatment, and the president’s enemies, real and imagined, are targeted for extra scrutiny.”
“There is injustice at the Justice Department, ladies and gentlemen,” he said, adding, “The sickness we must address is Mr. Barr’s use of the Department of Justice as a weapon to serve the president’s petty, private interests.”
Jordan told Nadler that next month’s hearing would give Barr an “opportunity to respond to the unfounded and outrageous allegations made by you and other Democrats.” He also urged Nadler to “avoid a spectacle, which only serves to embarrass you and the Committee.”
The Ohio congressman said he believed that the Judiciary Committee “must obtain specific documents and testimony from relevant Obama-Biden Administration witnesses” in order to “better understand the scope and extend of the Obama-Biden Justice Department’s targeting of the Trump campaign and transition team.” The Ohio Republican asked the New York Democrat to let him know by the end of business next Friday “whether you intend to work with us on this important oversight.”
The Republican letter listed a host of what he considers glaring problems with the Justice Department’s investigation into Russia and Trump: the 17 “significant errors and omissions” related to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants against Trump campaign associate Carter Page in 2016 and 2017, the use of British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s salacious and flawed Democratic-funded dossier, former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith deceptively editing a document during FISA proceedings against Page, and recently declassified witness transcripts from the House Intelligence Committee showing top Obama national security officials didn’t have direct evidence of Trump-Russia collusion.
Jordan also mentioned a number of controversies surrounding retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, including FBI special agent Peter Strzok appearing to stop the FBI from closing its investigation into Flynn in early January 2017 at the insistence of the FBI’s “seventh floor” leadership after the bureau had uncovered “no derogatory information”; the early January 2017 meeting between President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, and FBI Director James Comey during which Flynn was discussed; the problems with the interview of Flynn by Strzok and FBI agent Joseph Pientka; and Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page allegedly rewriting the FBI notes (known as a 302) from the Flynn interview.
The Ohio Republican also brought up the notes from Strzok that were released this week, which showed Comey saying Flynn’s calls with the Russian ambassador “appeared legit.” The notes also showed that Obama said the FBI should “look at it” using the “right people” and that Biden raised the Logan Act.
“As you claim to be so concerned about politicization at the Justice Department, this information should shock and alarm you,” Jordan wrote. “But, for some reason, you have been oddly silent and disinterested. Instead, you have been focused on attacking Attorney General Barr — who is trying to clean up the abuses of the Obama-Biden Justice Department — rather than on learning more about these troubling facts. I hope you will change course.”
