Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed a special counsel to look into the matter of Joe Biden and his classified documents scandal. There have now been three different finds of classified documents: two at his home in Wilmington, Delaware with one next to his Corvette in his garage, as well as a set of documents found in a closet at his office in the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C.
I’m inclined to think they quickly appointed someone so they could say that they were doing something, but I’m not sure I would bet on the special counsel doing anything to hold Joe Biden accountable.
However, the Republicans aren’t letting the scandal go by. Rep. Jim Jordan (D-OH), announced that his first investigation as the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee would be to look into Biden’s “mishandling” of the classified documents and the response of the Justice Department. Jordan has already sent a letter to the DOJ demanding answers to multiple questions primarily about what the DOJ knew when, the communications with the Biden team, and why this was covered up and hidden from the public.
#BREAKING: @Jim_Jordan and @RepMikeJohnson launch first investigation into @JoeBiden’s classified documents scandal. pic.twitter.com/sR8E5J2ZTd
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) January 13, 2023
“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 in a letter sent Friday to Garland.
“On January 12, 2023, you appointed Robert Hur as Special Counsel to investigate these matters,” they wrote. “The circumstances of this appointment raise fundamental oversight questions that the Committee routinely examines. We expect your complete cooperation with our inquiry.”
Among the problems are why this was covered up since November 2 so the public didn’t find out about it before the midterm elections and why the DOJ, after they appointed a U.S. attorney to look into the first find at the Biden Center in November, did not tell Congress or the public. Jordan is not only looking into Biden but what the DOJ was doing by keeping this quiet.
“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 wrote. “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.”
Jordan noted how differently the DOJ had treated the Biden situation versus that involving President Donald Trump — with an unprecedented raid on his Mar-a-Lago home.
“In fact, on August 8, 2022, despite the publicly available evidence of President Trump’s voluntary cooperation, you personally approved the decision to seek a warrant for excessive and unprecedented access to his private residence. On August 15, 2022, Committee Republicans wrote to you and FBI Director Christopher Wray requesting documents and information related to the FBI’s raid of President Trump’s residence,” the letter said.
The Department and FBI have failed to sufficiently comply with this request,” it added. “Our requests remain outstanding.”
Jordan and his vice-chair, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) demanded answers to these questions by Jan. 27. Now the GOP is in power, they also are going to have subpoena power and a greater ability to hold people accountable.
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