Rep. Jim Jordan opens investigation into Merrick Garland’s process to choose a Special Counsel

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has launched a probe over the cache of classified documents uncovered at President Biden’s Wilmington home and a DC office – and is demanding information on the process Attorney General Merrick Garland used to appoint a Special Counsel.

Jordan, a hardliner and Trump ally, fired off in a letter to Garland on Friday, is seeking information not just about the documents, but Garland’s appointment of a Special Counsel to investigate it – after the White House reiterated that they had acted entirely ‘by the book.’

‘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,’ Jordan and Rep. Mike Johnson, (R-La.) wrote Garland Friday. 

They referenced Garland’s appointment of Special Counsel Robert K. Hur, a former U.S. attorney for Maryland nominated by then-President Donald Trump, who previously worked as an aide to now-FBI Director Chris Wray and who helped oversee the Russia probe.

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) is demanding documents on the appointment of a Special Counsel to probe classified documents found at President Biden’s home and a DC think tank office

Hur is taking the job from the top Justice Department prosecutor in Chicago, John Lausch, who was earlier assigned by the department to investigate the matter and who recommended to Garland last week that a special counsel be appointed.

“On January 12, 2023, you appointed Robert Hur as Special Counsel to investigate these matters,’ in a letter sent by the Judiciary Committee to the White House. ‘The circumstances of this appointment raise fundamental oversight questions that the Committee routinely examines. We expect your complete cooperation with our inquiry,’ they wrote.

The oversight is just the latest indication of how House Republicans will use their powerful new perches to glean potentially politically potent information from the probe, even as the White House seeks to keep the matter contained within DOJ.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) has already launched his own probe, and has sought information from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the White House Counsel’s Office on how vice presidential Biden documents appeared at his home and office.

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U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said he made the decision to select a Special Counsel due to the ‘extraordinary circumstances’ at play. ‘This appointment underscores for the public the department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters, and to making decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law, Garland said Thursday

Earlier in the week, President Joe Biden said he was surprised by the discovery of documents. He refused questions on the subject on Friday

Special Counsel Robert K. Hur is a career federal prosecutor who was nominated by then-President Donald Trump to be U.S. Attorney for Maryland

Timeline as to events leading up to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment of Special Counsel to oversee an investigation into President Biden’s classified document drama

Jordan wants answers on when the DOJ learned about the documents. The White House counsel has said it informed the Archives on Nov. 3, 20222.

‘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,’ Jordan and Johnson wrote. ‘It is also unclear what interactions, if any, the Department had with President Biden or his representatives about his mishandling of classified material.’

They seek all documents related to Hur’s appointment, and to Garland’s earlier selection of Lausch, a holdover from the Trump Administration, to conduct the preliminary probe.

They also want documents between the executive office of the president, as well as the president’s lawyers, and DOJ and the FBI – and the ‘circumstance’ of how Biden’s lawyers discovered the classified information. 

Garland said he made the appointment due to the ‘extraordinary circumstances’ at play. ‘This appointment underscores for the public the department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters, and to making decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law, Garland said Thursday.