Staff Reports
The House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, a fierce defender of conservative values, has slapped Attorney General Merrick Garland with a subpoena for documents related to the Department of Justice’s snagging of private communication information from congressional aides back in 2017. Jordan, with the determination of a lion hunting for its prey, made it clear in his letter to Garland that he demanded these documents to conduct an independent investigation into the DOJ’s potential breach of separation of powers. Ever the vigilant watchdog, Jordan accused the DOJ of shirking its duty to fully comply with his previous requests on this matter. No stone will be left unturned under Jordan’s oversight!
In his quest for truth and justice, Jordan ain’t messing around. He’s taking charge and giving Garland a deadline of January 19 to cough up the goods. This ain’t no game of hide and seek; Jordan means business. The whole saga kicked off when Jason Foster, a lawyer working for the whistleblower advocacy group Empower Oversight, spilled the beans that the DOJ had subpoenaed Google for subscriber information back in 2017. And guess what? Foster’s own family members got roped into this data fishing expedition. The nerve of the DOJ!
Here's a link to the FOIA request we filed to try to gather more info.https://t.co/wmLUP9QN2e
1. Background… https://t.co/dLonVPdown pic.twitter.com/GTfyr6LrXT
— Jason Foster (@JsnFostr) October 25, 2023
But wait, it gets juicier. Foster, who was working for none other than Senator Chuck Grassley at the time, only found out in October that his private messages were among those snatched up by the DOJ back in 2017. Talk about an invasion of privacy! Jordan ain’t having none of that. He’s sweating bullets over the possibility that the DOJ was snoopin’ on congressional aides who were just trying to get to the bottom of the whole Trump-Russia hullabaloo. According to Jordan, these data seizures could very well be the DOJ’s underhanded way of sticking its nose where it doesn’t belong.
Of course, the DOJ is trying to cover its tracks. They’ve been scrambling to reassure Jordan that they’re innocent as choirboys. They claim to have taken major steps to address the accusations that they overstepped their boundaries. They’ve even roped in the DOJ inspector general to investigate the matter, and they’ve gone so far as to tweak their internal policies and slap on some extra layers of approval for snooping on members of Congress or their staff. But who do they think they’re foolin’? Jordan smells a rat, and he’s not backing down until every last scrap of evidence is laid bare.
But hold onto your cowboy hats, folks, ’cause there’s more. The DOJ has the nerve to say that the subpoenas they dished out in 2017 were all part of an investigation into media leaks that they later pinned on one staff member, James Wolfe. Yep, you heard that right. They’re trying to make it sound like it was all aboveboard and kosher. But Jordan ain’t buying it for a second. He’s raising a stink about the DOJ’s prying eyes and demanding answers.
So, there you have it, folks. It’s a showdown between the bigwigs on Capitol Hill, and it’s a battle for the ages. Will Jordan get to the bottom of the DOJ’s data grab? Only time will tell, but one thing’s for sure – he’s not backing down without a fight!
