At least 42 Biden administration officials were sent letters by Republicans on House Judiciary Committee this month as they request testimony from a variety of different White House officials.
Those letters primarily dealt with the suspected politicization of the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ), investigations into U.S. border security, and Hunter Biden.
A recent letter (pdf) led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) to White House chief of staff Ron Klain requested testimony from Biden administration staffers relating to alleged “misuse of federal criminal and counterterrorism resources to target concerned parents at school board meetings.” Interviews from four White House officials were requested.
Around the same time, another letter (pdf) from Jordan was sent to the Department of Education requesting testimony from three officials, and another letter to the Department of Homeland Security requests interviews from around a dozen administration officials. That includes embattled Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement chief Tae Johnson.
Even more DOJ and FBI officials were asked to testify during the next Congress, according to two separate letters (pdf, pdf) sent by Jordan and others last week. They are seeking testimony from Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Garland deputy Lisa Monaco, and dozens of other DOJ and FBI officials, according to a Washington Examiner analysis of the GOP-backed letters.
It’s likely that Republicans will seek to investigate how the FBI and DOJ handled its investigations into former President Donald Trump and the raid targeting Mar-a-Lago in August. Republicans and Trump have long said the two agencies have exhibited a politically motivated animus toward the former president, coming after Garland announced he had appointed a special counsel, Jack Smith, to investigate him.
More than a week ago, Garland appointed Smith as special counsel to “oversee two ongoing criminal investigations” into Trump, namely the incident surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach and the Mar-a-Lago raid, according to a DOJ news release. Just days before, Trump announced he would be embarking on a third presidential bid in 2024.
Other Investigations
Incoming House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) revealed that some of the GOP’s priorities for the incoming Congress are probing the origins of COVID-19, the widely criticized U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and allegations surrounding Hunter Biden.
The House Oversight Committee under its incoming chairman, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), is “ready to go start looking into a lot of the questions that people have had,” Scalise told Breitbart this weekend. “Whether it’s Hunter Biden’s dealings with all kinds of foreign countries [or] the laptop scandal, which the liberal media tried to dismiss when it came out in 2020,” he added. “It’s been verified.”
He added, “It turns out there’s a lot of information on that laptop that raises serious questions, and James Comer’s committee’s going to be asking those.”
“The origins of COVID is something we’ve talked about a lot, and looking into whether or not taxpayer money was used by companies like EcoHealth Alliance to promote gain-of-function research in the Wuhan lab, where many scientists have said that’s where COVID started, not at some wet market,” Scalise added, referring to claims that the U.S. National Institutes of Health provided funding to EcoHealth to carry out the controversial research into bat coronaviruses in the years before the emergence of COVID-19, a type of coronavirus.
Scalise also referenced the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan last summer, which many analysts claim was botched. In just over a week after pulling out of the country, Taliban militants were able to quickly recapture the country as throngs of Afghans gathered near the Kabul airport.
“Did they leave caches of guns behind to the Taliban with ammunition and night vision goggles?” Scalise told the outlet. “All of those reports we’ve seen, there’s never been a thorough hearing on it. Who was in the room? Which generals said it’s okay to leave that behind so that the Taliban can get it?”
Earlier in the week, Comer, the likely next House Oversight chairman, told Just the News that Republicans will investigate some 150 suspicious activity reports relating to Hunter Biden. There have been allegations that Joe Biden was involved in his son’s controversial overseas business deals, which the elder Biden has denied.
“The Democrats have set a precedent on this,” he explained. “They filed suit forcing former President [Donald] Trump to have to turn over his tax records. So the Democrats have already set a precedent for bank records and tax records.”
With just two races left uncalled after the 2022 midterms, Republicans have netted at least 220 seats to Democrats’ 213. Republican candidates lead in two seats in Colorado and California, according to data provided by The Associated Press.
Follow
Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter at The Epoch Times based in New York.
