On Friday, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Rep. Jamie Comer (R-KY) sent a letter to acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall requesting documents from the National Archives and Records Administration under suspicion that her agency colluded with Democrats.
“Committee on Oversight and Reform Republicans are continuing to investigate the National Archives and Records Administration’s (NARA) role in the FBI raid of former President Donald J. Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago,” the letter began. “Committee Republicans have learned that NARA’s actions initiated the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) criminal investigation against the former president the same day Committee Democrats inquired about whether a referral to DOJ had been made.”
“The possibility of NARA being pressured by Committee Democrats to pursue the former president is troubling,” the congressmen continued, adding, “and Committee Republicans are concerned about NARA’s continued refusal to provide information about its role in the raid on the former president’s home.”
Jordan and Comer then proceeded to outline potential evidence that they have uncovered that could point to Democrats colluding with NARA in order to attack former President Donald Trump.
“According to correspondence between Committee Democrats and NARA, on February 9, 2022,” the letter stated. “Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney wrote to NARA raising concerns about 15 boxes of presidential records stored at the former president’s home at Mar-a-Lago and asking whether the Archivist had been in contact with the Attorney General on this matter.”
“The same day—February 9, 2022— a ‘referral' from NARA was “sent to the United States Department of Justice” that initiated an investigation into the former president,” they wrote. “The fact that NARA transmitted to DOJ a referral that launched a criminal investigation of the former president the same day the Democrat Chairwoman of the Committee inquired whether the agency had been in contact with DOJ raises serious concerns about whether NARA made the referral after pressure from Committee Democrats.”
The two Republicans then attacked NARA for failing to be non-political stating, “In an October 7, 2022, letter responding to a previous Committee Republicans’ October 4, 2022, letter requesting documents about NARA’s interactions with Congressional Democrats, you wrote that NARA ‘take[s] [its] role as a non-political agency very seriously' but at the same time you failed to provide the documents and other information requested.”
The two then demanded that NARA turn over previously requested documents as well as any documents “referring or relating to the Trump Administration’s control, transfer, storage, or other handling of documents subject to the Presidential Records Act,” between January 2020 and October 2022.
The letter is a prelude to what House Republicans hope to uncover once they take back the House of Representatives in the midterm elections. Oversight of the executive branch will be a top priority for the GOP as investigations will be launched into NARA, the handling of the border by the Department of Homeland Security, and the politicization of the Department of Justice.
Comer, the ranking member of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, and Jordan, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, are going to be at the tip of the spear in exposing the Biden Administration for its abuses and these document requests are setting the groundwork for an explosive set of revelations to come 2023.
You Can Follow Sterling on Twitter Here
