Rep. Jim Jordan argued that federal agencies handled the classified document cases of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump differently, on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” Sunday.
Jordan suggested during an interview with Chuck Todd that there was a double standard between the discovery of classified documents Trump had at his Florida Mar-a-Lago residence and Biden’s vice presidential papers found at his Delaware home and a office in Washington were found.
The Ohio Republican lawmaker, who now heads the House Judiciary Committee, accused the FBI and other agencies of being “armed”: “The FBI raided the home of a former president 91 days before an election, took the phone of a sitting member of Congress and so on.”
Todd pushed back saying “there was nine months between the first action…the [National] The archives asked for documents before even handing them over to the Justice Department. The subpoena was issued 60 days before they actually served a subpoena.
“And more importantly, the only time the public found out was because Donald Trump told the public about it. This wasn’t some kind of repainted picture, because an FBI picture did this, this, and this within hours of each other, when it had actually been a year and a half since Donald Trump failed to comply with one of the National Archives’ requests. said Todd. “This is not evidence that they are somehow armed and playing politics.”
“They raided Trump’s house. They didn’t raid Biden’s house,” Jordan said.
“Because Biden didn’t defy a subpoena, congressman,” Todd said, adding that Trump had 60 days to comply before the FBI executed a search warrant.
The National Archives contacted Trump officials shortly after his 2021 departure to inform them that the agency believed some documents were missing and should be returned. After months of back and forth, the former president sent 15 boxes of files, some containing classified documents, from Mar-a-Lago to the archives in January last year. More classified documents were later found after the FBI learned that Trump had not fully complied with a subpoena.
Jordan’s comments come in the wake of the new GOP majority in the House. He also now chairs the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, which could serve as a one-stop shop for investigating alleged federal government misconduct against conservatives, including Trump.
Biden has come under scrutiny over documents with secret markings found at his Delaware home and a Washington office. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, a top Biden ally, said last week: “It’s just unacceptable to think that any of them ended up in boxes in storage in one place or another.”
Republicans, meanwhile, have seized on the revelations, with some arguing that it shows the FBI misdirected Trump when it raided his home in Mar-a-Lago to retrieve classified documents.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed Special Counsel Robert Hur, a former federal prosecutor who has worked with many Republicans throughout his law enforcement career, to oversee the Biden investigation.
Jordan announced this month that the Judiciary Committee had opened an investigation into classified Obama-era documents found in Biden’s home and former Washington office. In a letter to Garland, Jordan demanded all documents and communications between the Justice Department, FBI, and White House regarding the discovery, as well as information regarding Garland’s nomination of Hur.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, asked the White House to release visitor logs from Biden’s Delaware home after more classified Obama administration documents were found at the president’s Delaware residence.
The White House Council Office said last week it was reviewing recent requests from Comer related to Biden’s handling of classified documents and indicated it intended to cooperate to some extent.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
