The new Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee has launched his first investigation — scrutinizing the White House and Justice Department over their handling of President Joe Biden’s classified documents scandal.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, fired off a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday, demanding all documents and communications between the DOJ, the FBI, and the Executive Office of the President about Biden’s apparent mishandling of classified information following his time as vice president during the Obama administration.
MEET ROBERT HUR: THE NEW BIDEN SPECIAL COUNSEL
The Republican letter, co-signed by another top GOP member of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA), also demanded that Garland hand over details about the appointment of DOJ veteran and former Trump federal prosecutor Robert Hur to be the special counsel handling the Biden classified records saga.
Biden’s lawyers have admitted that Obama-era records with classified markings on them were found in Biden’s office at the Penn Biden Center in the nation’s capital in early November, with more classified documents found in Biden’s garage in Delaware in December, and then further classified documents found in his Delaware home on Thursday.
“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,” the House Republicans told Garland in the Friday letter.
Garland had appointed Kosovo war crimes prosecutor Jack Smith late last year to take over the Justice Department’s investigation of classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago. The Biden attorney general then selected Hur to be special counsel in the Biden saga on Thursday.
Hur’s most recent government position was as the U.S. attorney for Maryland during the Trump administration, and he previously worked for Trump deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein early in the Trump administration and, years prior, for now-FBI Director Christopher Wray at the Justice Department.
The House Republicans told Garland that “the circumstances of this appointment raise fundamental oversight questions that the Committee routinely examines” and that “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,” the GOP letter to Garland 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.”
Garland had previously selected U.S. Attorney John Lausch, a Trump-appointed holdover, to handle the Justice Department’s investigation into Biden improperly keeping classified documents. Lausch, who flanked Garland during his Thursday announcement, is one of only two Trump-appointed federal prosecutors kept on by Biden — the other is David Weiss, the U.S. attorney for Delaware, who is investigating Biden’s son Hunter.
The Republicans asked on Friday for all records related to the selection of Lausch to do the initial investigation and related to the choice of Hur as special counsel. The GOP investigators also asked for all documents between or among the DOJ, the FBI, and the White House related to classified records found at the Penn Biden Center and at Biden’s home. The letter also told Garland to hand over all communications between the DOJ and Biden’s lawyers related to the classified documents saga.
Jordan and Johnson also told the Justice Department to provide all of the documents and communications related to the storage of the classified records at Biden’s office and his home, as well as all records tied to the discovery of the documents with classified markings.
Garland provided a timeline of events to explain why he had chosen to select Hur as special counsel on Thursday.
The attorney general said that on Nov. 4, the National Archives inspector general told a prosecutor at the Justice Department that the White House had informed them about the records found at the Penn Biden Center, with Garland noting that “that office was not authorized for storage of classified documents.”
The FBI began its assessment of whether the classified records had been mishandled on Nov. 9, Garland said, and on Nov. 14, Garland assigned Lausch to conduct an initial investigation into the matter to help the attorney general decide whether to appoint a special counsel.
Garland said that Biden’s personal lawyer then told Lausch on Dec. 20 that more classified documents were found “in the garage” of Biden’s personal home in Wilmington, Delaware. The FBI went there and secured those documents as well.
The Biden attorney general said Lausch then briefed him on Jan. 5 about the results of the initial investigation, with Lausch advising Garland that “a special counsel was warranted.” Garland said that, based on what Lausch had found, “I concluded that, under the special counsel regulations, it was in the public interest to appoint a special counsel.”
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Lausch then continued his investigation while the Justice Department identified Hur as the best pick for special counsel.
“This morning, President Biden’s personal counsel called Mr. Lausch and stated that an additional document with classified markings was identified at the president’s personal residence,” Garland said. Biden had said earlier Thursday that a classified record had been found in his “personal library.”
