The Department of Justice’s letter to the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), revealed it wouldn’t be sharing information about ongoing investigations.
The letter, first obtained by Politico, dashes Republican lawmaker’s hopes of getting information on ongoing investigations — and details into President Joe Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified documents from his time as Vice President.
In the letter, Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte writes that the DOJ’s reluctance to share information about the Biden investigation with Congressional Committees is “consistent with longstanding policy and practice.”
Uriarte added that the Department had to weigh any “oversight requests” against its interest in “protecting the integrity of its work.”
Uriarte then pointed to the “Longstanding Department policy” that prevented the DOJ “from confirming or denying the existence of pending investigations” because of a Congressional inquiry into non-publicly available information.
However, the assistant Attorney General acknowledged that the DOJ is obligated to “protect the government’s ability to prosecute fully and fairly.”
Yet he emphasized that the DOJ “must protect witnesses and law enforcement,” which aids in preventing “those implicated in investigations from fleeing and additional crimes from occurring.”
On Tuesday (January 17), Jordan sent a letter to the DOJ requesting information from the last Congress.
Rather than send that information, Uriarte detailed the Department’s practices and highlighted it would cooperate “with the Committee’s legitimate efforts to seek information” and would be willing to work with the Committee to identify the individual to provide interviews on “legitimate, informational needs.”
Following the letter, the GOP-led House Judiciary Committee tweeted, “Why’s DOJ scared to cooperate with our investigations?
