On Monday, the Justice Department denied the House Judiciary Committee’s request to turn over documents related to the special counsel’s investigation into President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents.
In a letter to the committee’s chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the department said it could not turn over files that are not public in accordance with its longstanding policy not to share information that could affect an ongoing investigation .
“Disclosures to Congress about active investigations risk jeopardizing those investigations and creating the impression that Congress may exert improper political pressure or attempt to influence the Department’s decisions in some cases,” the letter said.
The department added that a disclosure carries other risks, including affecting the ability of prosecutors to question relevant witnesses and file charges.
But the committee doesn’t seem eager to accept the DOJ’s reasoning for not complying with its request.
“It’s troubling to say the least that the department is more interested in playing politics than cooperating,” said Russell Dye, a spokesman for Jordan, according to CNN.
The committee asked the Justice Department to turn over all communications related to the appointment of special counsel Robert Hur, as well as files related to the selection of John Lausch, which Garland initially used to analyze the results. They also requested communications between the DOJ, the FBI and the executive office of the president about Biden’s secret files, among other things.
Earlier this month, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Hur as special counsel to investigate classified materials found in Biden’s Delaware home and a former office in Washington.
Most of the documents recovered from Biden’s records date from his time as vice president during the Barack Obama administration, while some date from his time in the Senate.
Biden has maintained that it “doesn’t exist” in the documents and that he has fully cooperated with the investigation.
Garland also ordered a special counsel investigation into classified documents found in former President Donald Trump’s possession that compared FBI agents who raided his Mar-a-Lago estate to Nazi Germany’s secret police and even accused of presenting the evidence found.
The FBI raided Trump’s residence in August after he failed to comply with a subpoena.
On Sunday, NBC’s Chuck Todd accused Jordan of painting an inaccurate picture of how Biden and Trump handled the discovery of classified material in their records during an interview Sunday on “Meet the Press.”
Jordan said the department was “armed” against Trump and also protested what he described as a double standard in its handling of both men’s cases.
“Biden did not contest a subpoena, Congressman,” Todd said.
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