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The Justice Department signaled Friday it’s unlikely to share details about ongoing prison investigations with the brand new GOP-controlled House, in a transfer that’s sure to frustrate Republicans within the chamber.
In a letter to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan responding to a flurry of doc requests, the DOJ stated that “any oversight requests must be weighed against the department’s interests in protecting the integrity of its work.”
The letter added: “The Department’s mission to independently and impartially uphold the rule of law requires us to maintain the integrity of our investigations, prosecutions, and civil actions, and to avoid even a perception that our efforts are influenced by anything but the law and the facts.”
House Republicans have made clear they plan to look at the Justice Department’s dealing with of politically delicate probes, together with its position within the ongoing particular counsel investigations associated the dealing with of categorised materials by President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee promptly responded to the letter, tweeting Friday afternoon: “Why’s DOJ scared to cooperate with our investigations?”
The letter is an early signal of the hurdles Jordan is more likely to face, significantly as he tries to analyze the Justice Department and the FBI. House Republicans have been particularly desperate to dig into the Justice Department’s ongoing probes, even authorizing a Judiciary subcommittee tasked with investigating the purported “weaponization” of the federal authorities, together with “ongoing criminal investigations.”
The letter sheds gentle on how the division will resist offering data associated to ongoing investigations, even because the division pledged Friday to accommodate lawmakers’ requests the place attainable, quoting former President Ronald Reagan.
“As President Reagan explained in his 1982 directive on responding to congressional requests for information, the ‘tradition of accommodation’ should be ‘the primary means of resolving conflicts between the Branches,’” the letter stated.
Jordan is asking the division to supply paperwork associated to the appointment of Robert Hur as particular counsel within the Biden paperwork probe in addition to the choice of Trump-appointed US Attorney John Lausch to steer the preliminary overview of the case, along with a broad array of inner and exterior communications concerning the matter.
Last week, Jordan despatched new letters to a number of Biden administration officers, together with Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Drug Enforcement Administration head Anne Milgram, reiterating his oversight requests and calls for for paperwork related to the Judiciary Committee’s investigations.
“The Administration’s stonewalling must stop,” Jordan wrote, underscoring his plans to aggressively press high Biden officers even because the committee’s probes stay of their infancy.
“House Judiciary Republicans are committed to holding each agency accountable under the new majority and will use compulsory processes, if necessary, to get answers for the American people,” he added.
This story has been up to date with further particulars.