GOP Rep. Jordan mulls White House subpoena for censorship records

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan has suggested the White House may face a congressional subpoena as he seeks to secure records on the executive branch's cooperation with private companies to throttle disfavored speech.

In a Thursday letter, Jordan wrote to White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients informing him that the panel may "resort to compulsory process" if the White House declined to cooperate with the committee's document requests.

In April of this year, the committee asked Zients to provide materials on how the White House may have "coerced and colluded with companies and other intermediaries to censor speech," though the special counsel to the president, who responded on Zeint's' behalf, told the panel it must first seek such information directly from government branch agencies. Jordan refuted that point, contending that only the Executive Office of the President has access to some of the materials it seeks.

Jordan further asserted that the White House has worked with social media companies to stifle the postings of the government's detractors, pointing in particular to a White House official's 2021 email asking Twitter to censor a tweet from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is now challenging Biden for the Democratic nomination.

"[T]here is already extensive evidence that the White House played a unique role in urging and directing social media companies to impose viewpoint-based censorship," Jordan continued. "Based on this evidence, and in light of the EOP’s unique position within the executive branch, the Committee has good reason to believe that additional material exists in the EOP’s custody and control that would help the Committee to understand the nature and extent of its involvement in this censorship scheme."

Jordan set a deadline of June 29 for the White House to comply with the committee's document requests.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.