Representative Jim Jordan opens investigation into Merrick Garland’s process for choosing special counsel

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has launched an investigation into the cache of classified documents discovered at President Biden’s Wilmington home and a DC office, demanding information on the process used by Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint special counsel.

Hardline Trump ally Jordan, fired in a letter to Garland on Friday, is seeking information not only about the documents but also about Garland’s appointment of a special counsel to investigate him, after the White House reiterated that they had acted completely ‘by the book.’

We are monitoring the Justice Department’s actions regarding former Vice President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, including the apparent unauthorized possession of classified material in a private Washington, DC office and in the garage of his Wilmington, Delaware residence . Jordan and Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) wrote to Garland on Friday.

They referenced Garland’s appointment of special counsel Robert Hur, a former Maryland federal prosecutor nominated by then-President Donald Trump who previously worked as an aide to now FBI Director Chris Wray and who helped oversee the Russia investigation.

Hur will take over from Chicago Justice Department chief prosecutor John Lausch, who was previously assigned by the department to investigate the matter and who recommended to Garland last week that 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 issues that the Committee routinely considers. I look forward to your full cooperation with our investigation,” they wrote.

The oversight is just the latest indication of how House Republicans will use their powerful new positions to gain potentially politically potent information from the investigation, even as the White House seeks to keep the matter contained within the Justice Department.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) has already launched his own investigation and sought information from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the White House Attorney’s Office about how Vice President Biden’s documents appeared in his home and office.

Jordan wants answers about when the Justice Department found out about the documents. White House counsel has said that he reported to the Archives on November 3, 2022.

“It is unclear when the Department first learned of the existence of these documents and whether it actively withheld this information from the public on the eve of the 2022 election,” Jordan and Johnson wrote. “It is also unclear what interactions, if any, the Department had with President Biden or his representatives regarding their mishandling of classified material.”

They are seeking all documents related to the appointment of Hur and to the previous selection of Lausch by Garland, a holdover from the Trump Administration, to conduct the preliminary investigation.

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

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