Reps. Jim Jordan and James Comer have made a ton of record requests to the White House, but they were all denied because the requests lack constitutional authority.
In respective letters to Reps. James Comer (R-Ky) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), White House Special Counsel Richard Sauber said that the Biden administration had no immediate plans to respond to a slew of records requests that both men made the past several weeks. In those letters, obtained exclusively by POLITICO, Sauber described such requests as constitutionally illegitimate because both Jordan, who is expected to chair the House Judiciary Committee, and Comer, who is expected to head the Oversight Committee, made them before they had any authority to do so.
“Congress has not delegated such [oversight] authority to individual members of Congress who are not committee chairmen, and the House has not done so under its current Rules,” wrote Sauber, one of the White House’s top oversight lawyers.
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What on the surface may seem like a mundane process story has immense consequences. Jordan and Comer plan to investigate Hunter Biden and the Biden administration. The Republicans submitted the record requests early so that they could launch their investigations as soon as the Republican majority takes office in a few days.
Since Jordan and Comer have to submit all of their requests again, it could be weeks or months before they might get the documents and records that they want.
The Biden administration will not roll over and let Jim Jordan run wild.
The White House was correct. Until he and Comer are the chairs of the Judiciary and Oversight Committees, they lack the constitutional authority to request anything, which means that all of those promised Biden investigations will have to wait until every single document request has been resubmitted.
Jim Jordan is in for a tough ride because President Biden and his very experienced staff know how to fight.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
