On Monday, the Justice Department turned down Jim Jordan’s request for sensitive information pertaining to its investigation into classified records discovered at President Joe Biden’s home and old office.
According to a senior Justice Agency official, the department would cooperate as much as it could with the investigation but would withhold any nonpublic information.
Jordan, R-Ohio, received a letter from Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs Carlos Uriarte, “The Department’s longstanding policy is to maintain the confidentiality of such information regarding open matters.”
The Department’s ability to gather facts, interview witnesses, and bring criminal prosecutions where necessary could be hampered by the disclosure of non-public information about ongoing investigations. This could also be a violation of legal requirements or court orders, reveal the investigation’s roadmap, and interfere with our investigations. The legal rights, personal safety, and privacy interests of people who are subject to investigations or who help them are likewise protected by maintaining confidentiality.
Jordan wanted information regarding the discovery of Obama-era data that Biden had in his hands, including all documents and correspondence pertaining to the Justice Department’s inquiry.
Jordan should not have been surprised by the Justice Department’s response, according to a House Democratic aide.
“Jim Jordan knew all along that he wasn’t entitled to disrupt ongoing criminal investigations. The question is whether he will clutch his pearls and pretend to be outraged or actually sit down and work with a department that seems willing to give him at least some of the information he has requested,” the aide stated.
This month, Uriarte informed Jordan of the Justice Department’s approach to continuing investigations.
The Justice Department is collaborating with the intelligence community to shed light on the national security assessments being conducted in the Biden case, according to a separate letter from Uriarte to the Senate Intelligence Committee. There is also a separate investigation into the documents that former President Donald Trump withheld from the Justice Department.
Senators on the committee were incensed last week when National Intelligence Director Avril Haines refused to disclose them copies of the sensitive documents found at Biden’s office and his Delaware home as well as Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in a briefing behind closed doors.
