Department of justice

Exclusive: Jim Jordan Subpoenas DOJ for Documents on School Boards Issue

February 3, 2023 by Ashley Oliver Leave a Comment

The House Judiciary Committee has ramped up its efforts to obtain information from the Justice Department (DOJ) on how it approached concerned parents at school board meetings by issuing a subpoena Friday to Attorney General Merrick Garland for numerous documents and communications on the matter.

The subpoena, reviewed by Breitbart News, commands Garland to provide to the committee numerous items that committee chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) has repeatedly requested from the department since the school boards issue first surfaced more than a year ago.

Jordan, while he was ranking member of the committee, first contacted Garland in October 2021 about a directive Garland had issued to the FBI that month about a “disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence” against school administrators.

Garland acknowledged during a hearing before the committee that he had sent the directive just after the National School Boards Association (NSBA) sent a letter to the White House, which the NSBA later retracted, that had asked the White House to investigate visibly outraged parents who were attending school board meetings as possible “domestic terrorists.”

Jordan has accused DOJ of using the NSBA letter as a “pretext for the use of federal law enforcement,” including counterterrorism measures, against parents, which Jordan has argued could “chill the First Amendment rights” of parents.

“You, the Honorable Merrick B. Garland, Attorney General are required to produce the following items in your possession, custody, or control, from January 20, 2021 to present, in unredacted form,” the subpoena states as it then lists out nine detailed items, all of which Jordan has requested from DOJ in the past to no avail.

The subpoena, among its list of demands, asks for:

All documents and communications between Mary Wall, Senior Policy Advisor to the President, and any Department of Justice employee(s) referring or relating to the National School Boards Association’s (NSBA) letter dated September 29, 2021; the Attorney General’s memorandum dated October 4, 2021; or alleged threats or violence at school board meetings.

Jordan last reiterated this and all of the other requests on the subpoena to DOJ among a compilation of demands to the department on January 17.

DOJ showed some resistance to Jordan’s January 17 correspondence by telling the chairman that while the department would work to be accommodating for the committee’s oversight obligations, “it may not always be possible to participate or to address all the topics the Committee wishes to raise.”

The subpoena directs Garland to produce the required documents to the committee on March 1 at 9:00 a.m.

Jordan, who is planning a number of high-profile investigations this Congress, has in the past threatened to resort to legal means to compel government agencies to satisfy his requests. This subpoena, the first to be issued this Congress, is likely to be one of several the chairman sends out as he pursues various probes into DOJ and other agencies.

Many of the probes are expected to occur through the newly created Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, which the House established this Congress to look into allegations of civil liberties violations by the agencies.

Write to Ashley Oliver at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @asholiver.

Mark Warner, Marco Rubio Renew Bipartisan Demand for DOJ’s ‘Immediate Compliance’ with Classified Documents

February 3, 2023 by Ashley Oliver Leave a Comment

Senate Intelligence Committee chair Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and ranking member Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) are demanding “immediate compliance” from the Justice Department and director of national intelligence after neither complied with prior requests from the senators for a review of how recent document discoveries may have threatened national security.

The senators stated in a letter sent Thursday and published by CBS that they not only wanted information they were still awaiting about documents with classified markings found at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and the Penn Biden Center, but that they were expanding their request to include documents found at the homes of President Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence.

“Our request is not unprecedented. In other investigations involving the mishandling of classified information the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence have accommodated the legitimate oversight needs of this Committee without detriment to any ongoing investigation,” the senators wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.

The letter is a sign of Warner and Rubio’s increased frustration with both the Justice Department and Haines, who are now facing accusations of stonewalling the senators.

The department’s last communication to the pair, sent January 28 and published by Fox, indicated the department was “working” in coordination with Haines to satisfy the Senate committee’s needs but that it was attempting to do so “without harming the ongoing Special Counsel investigations.”

Haines, for her part, met with Warner, Rubio, and others in a closed-door briefing last week, and Rubio emerged dissatisfied, according to NBC.

“The bottom line is this: They won’t tell us what they have until the special counsel allows them to tell us. That’s an unacceptable position,” Rubio said, per the outlet.

In their letter Thursday, Rubio and Warner asked that Garland and Haines meet their demands promptly.

“As we expressed previously, in light of the substantial public interest, the need for bipartisan and responsible oversight of these matters is at its highest. We urge your immediate compliance with our previous requests,” they wrote. “These matters are the highest priority of the Committee and our oversight and authorization efforts will align accordingly.”

In a recent Face the Nation interview, Rubio alluded to the committee holding up funding for the intelligence community should the committee’s needs not be met.

Senator Rubio on classified documents: “I’m not in the threat business right now, but …” pic.twitter.com/JSMltZQul1
— Senator Rubio Press (@SenRubioPress) January 29, 2023

“I’m not in the threat business right now, but there are things we need to do as a committee every year to authorize the moving around of funds. I think the director of national intelligence and other heads of intelligence agencies are aware of that,” Rubio said.

Write to Ashley Oliver at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @asholiver.

Poll: Nearly Half of Americans Consider Biden’s Handling of Classified Documents a ‘Major Scandal’

February 2, 2023 by Hannah Bleau Leave a Comment

Nearly half of Americans consider President Biden’s handling of classified documents a “major scandal,” a Rasmussen Reports survey released this week found.

The survey noted that a special counsel is investigating how classified documents — from Biden’s time as vice president during the Obama administration — ended up in multiple locations, including his Delaware home. When asked if it is a major scandal, minor scandal, or no scandal at all, nearly half, 48 percent, agreed it is a “major scandal.”

Nearly a quarter, 24 percent, consider it a “minor” scandal, and another 24 percent consider it “no” scandal at all. Four percent remain unsure.

Nearly three-quarters of Republicans, 73 percent, consider it a “major scandal,” as do 50 percent of independents and 23 percent of Democrats. A plurality of Democrats, 40 percent, do not believe it is scandal at all.

Ian Sams, with the White House counsel’s office, speaks to reporters outside of the West Wing of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023. The FBI has searched President Joe Biden’s Rehoboth Beach, Del., home as part of its investigation into the potential mishandling of classified documents. Biden’s attorney says that agents didn’t find any classified documents during the Wednesday search, but did take some handwritten notes and other materials relating to Biden’s time as vice president for review. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

The survey also asked, “How likely is it that information from classified documents was used by Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, in his foreign business deals?”

Most believe it is at least somewhat likely, and of those, 44 percent believe it is “very” likely. Most, 59 percent, also at least somewhat agree that the Biden family has been “influence-peddling for a decade.”

The survey was taken January 26-29, 2023, among 900 likely U.S. voters and has a +/- 3 percent margin of error.

A recent survey from The Economist/YouGov found that more than three-quarters of Americans support a Department of Justice investigation into Biden over the classified documents found in multiple locations. Further, a CNN poll released last week found that 80 percent of Democrats, specifically, also support the DOJ’s appointment of a special counsel to investigate. Attorney General Merrick Garland made that announcement on January 12.

“I concluded that under the special counsel regulations, it was in the public interest to appoint a special counsel,” Garland said at the time, announcing that former U.S. attorney from Maryland Robert Hur will investigate.