The letter, addressed to Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), acknowledges the GOP’s multiple requests for information during the last Congress. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
The Justice Department is signaling that it has the right to not cooperate with Hill Republicansâ requests to peek into their ongoing investigations, a top official wrote in a letter obtained by POLITICO.
âConsistent with longstanding policy and practice, any oversight requests must be weighed against the Departmentâs interests in protecting the integrity of its work,â Carlos Uriarte, DOJâs legislative affairs chief, wrote in the five-page letter. âLongstanding 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.â
The letter, addressed to Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), acknowledges the GOPâs multiple requests for information during the last Congress but doesnât divulge any new information. Instead, Uriarte outlines how he hopes DOJ could have a âproductive relationshipâ with Republicans in the new Congress, as Jordan had in previous letters accused the DOJ of âstonewallingâ their requests, raised the possibility of a subpoena and said the committee could resort to âcompulsory practicesâ to obtain the requested information and documents.
Itâs an early marker of DOJâs position as Republicans pledge to probe President Joe Bidenâs administration over a laundry list of issues, including with a select subpanel that has a broad mandate to investigate the federal government. Conservatives have hinted they would use that panel to try to look into certain ongoing law enforcement investigations.
The Justice Department letter cites a 1982 directive from President Ronald Reagan, stressing that the administration would try to respond to congressional oversight requests and avoid invoking executive privilege, reserving it for use âonly in the most compelling circumstances.â Uriarte, an assistant attorney general, said DOJ would respect the committeeâs âlegitimate effortsâ to seek information, âconsistent with our obligation to protect Executive Branch confidentiality interests.â
DOJ also outlined guidance for potential hearings House Republicans might call, including which Justice Department staff might be able to testify. Citing a 2srcsrcsrc DOJ letter to Congress, Urirate wrote that DOJ would not be making line agents or attorneys involved in everyday casework available to testify and instead would direct inquiries to supervising officials.
âWe are available to engage in staff-level meetings to determine which information requests incorporated into your recent letters reflect the Committeeâs current priorities in light of prior Department responses and disclosures,â Uriarte said.
A Jordan spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney contributed to to this report.
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By Nicholas Wu
Politico