Rep. Jim Jordan, head of the Judiciary Committee, argued Sunday that federal agencies were handling the classified document cases of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump differently.
In an interview with Chuck Todd on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Jordan, R-Ohio, suggested there was a double standard between the discovery of classified documents in Trump’s possession at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida and The Vice presidential documents found at Biden’s home in Delaware and in a Washington office.
Jordan accused the FBI and other agencies of being “weaponized”: “The FBI raided the home of a former president 91 days before the election, seized the phone of a sitting member of Congress, and so on.”
Todd pushed back, saying, “There were nine months between the initial action… the [National] The files requested documents even before they were turned over to the Justice Department. The subpoena was issued 60 days before they actually executed a subpoena.
“And more importantly, the only time the public found out was because Donald Trump told the public. This was not some kind of new painting, as an FBI image did this, this, and this within hours of each other, when in reality it was a year and a half since Donald Trump did not comply with any of the National Archives requests.” Todd said, “This is not some kind of proof that they’ve somehow been armed and playing politics.”
Jordan said: “Trump’s house was raided. They have not raided Biden’s house.”
“Because Biden did not challenge a subpoena, Congressman,” Todd said, adding that Trump had 60 days to comply before the FBI executed a search warrant.
The National Archives contacted Trump officials shortly after he left office in 2021 to inform them that the agency believed some documents were missing and needed to be returned. After months of back and forth, the former president sent 15 boxes of files, some containing classified documents, from Mar-a-Lago to the archives in January of last year. More classified documents were found after the FBI learned that Trump had not fully complied with a subpoena.
Jordan’s comments come in the wake of the new Republican majority in the House. He now also chairs the Federal Government Select Subcommittee on Weapons, which could serve as a one-stop shop for investigating perceived wrongdoing by the federal government against conservatives, including Trump.
Biden has come under scrutiny for documents with classified marks found at his Delaware home and a Washington office. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, one of Biden’s top allies, said last week: “To think that any of them ended up in crates being stored somewhere or other is just unacceptable.”
Meanwhile, Republicans have seized on the revelations, with some arguing it shows the FBI unfairly targeted Trump when it raided his Mar-a-Lago home to recover classified documents.
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed special counsel Robert Hur, a former federal prosecutor who has worked with many Republicans throughout his law enforcement career, to oversee the Biden investigation.
Jordan announced this month that the Judiciary Committee had opened an investigation into classified Obama-era documents found at Biden’s home and former Washington office. In a letter to Garland, Jordan demanded all documents and communications between the Justice Department, the FBI, and the White House about the discovery, as well as information about Garland’s naming of Hur.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., called on the White House to release visitor logs to Biden’s Delaware home after more classified Obama administration documents were found. at the president’s residence in Delaware.
The White House Attorney’s Office said last week that it was reviewing recent requests from Comer related to Biden’s handling of classified documents and noted that he planned to cooperate to some extent.
