Jim Jordan Subpoenas Attorney Merrick Garland Over DOJ Snooping On Congress
Jose Nino
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On December 19, 2023 Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan issued a subpoena to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding that he provide information on the Department of Justice’s spying on congressional employees. In October 2023, per a Just the News report, current and former congressional oversight staff were informed that the DOJ had confiscated their phone and email records in 2017 while reviewing leaks. This notification came because of the government’s effort to convince a federal court to cover up the communications confiscation for five years. Of the individuals who had their records confiscated were at least a dozen congressional representatives from both parties and/or their staff.
These shocking revelations enraged Congressional Republicans, who also demanded that the DOJ provide an explanation for its behavior. In the subpoena issued on December 19, Jordan revealed that the DOJ had responded to his request, although the reply was not satisfactory for him.
“In its letter to the Committee, the Department represented that the legal process used—which reportedly sought the private communications of both Republican and Democrat employees in both the House and the Senate—were related to one investigation ‘into the unauthorized disclosure of classified information in a national media publication,'” Jordan declared.
“According to news reports, this investigation centered on FISA warrants obtained by the Justice Department on former Trump campaign associate Carter Page. At the time, the FISA warrant on Mr. Page was the subject of robust Congressional oversight and vigorous debate in Congress,” he continued. “The Justice Department Office of Inspector General later determined that the Department abused its FISA authority to surveil Mr. Page, and the Department admitted there was ‘insufficient predication’ for the warrant.”
“If the Department’s representation is accurate, it indicates that the Executive Branch used its immense law-enforcement authority to gather and search the private communications of multiple Legislative Branch employees who were conducting Constitutional oversight of the Department’s investigative actions—actions that were later found to be unlawful,” Jordan continued sounding off. “Because the Department has not complied in full with our requests, we cannot independently determine whether the Department sought to alleviate the heightened separation-of-powers sensitivities involved or whether the Department first sought the information through other means before resorting to legal process.”
“The Committee also has concerns that aspects of the Department’s investigation may have been a pretext to justify piercing the Legislative Branch’s deliberative process and improperly access data from Members and staff involved in conducting oversight of the Department,” Jordan said in a concluding remark.
Jordan is right to press the DOJ on its sketchy surveillance programs. The DOJ has ironically transformed into an agency of injustice and must be held accountable for its bad behavior.
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