DOJ declines House GOP requests to hand over investigation materials

The Department of Justice will not provide House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, with materials related to its ongoing investigations, the agency said Friday.

"Consistent with longstanding policy and practice, any oversight requests must be weighed against the Department’s interests in protecting the integrity of its work," wrote Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legislative Affairs Carlos Felipe Uriarte in a letter to Jordan that Fox News obtained. "Longstanding Department policy prevents us from confirming or denying the existence of pending investigations in response to congressional requests or providing non-public information about our investigations."

Jordan, whom Republicans have also tapped to lead the House's new "weaponization" of the federal government panel, initially wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland in his capacity as Judiciary Committee chairman on Jan. 13, seeking information related to appointment of special counsel Robert Hur to handle the DOJ's investigation in Biden's storage of classified documents.

On Jan. 17, Jordan dispatched a bevy of letters various federal officials, warning them that they may face subpoenas should they fail to comply with congressional demands for information.

Uriarte directly addressed the Jan. 17 information requests, observing that Jordan's inquiries mandated that the DOJ negotiate with him, which he confirmed his agency would do.

"We believe that good-faith negotiations will enable us to meet the Committee’s needs while protecting the Department’s institutional interests," he wrote. "As President Reagan explained in his 1982 directive on responding to congressional requests for information, the 'tradition of accommodation; should be 'the primary means of resolving conflicts between the branches.'"

Jordan is likely to receive similarly guarded responses from federal agencies in his capacity as head of the weaponization panel, though that body has been granted authority to review ongoing investigations and to see sensitive intelligence materials.

The House Oversight Committee, under Kentucky Republican Rep. James Comer, is also planning its own investigations as part of a party-wide effort to hold the Biden administration accountable for its conduct while in power.