Coronavirus Probe: Can the House Oversight Committee Investigate Biden’s White House Account of Trade Practices with the DOJ?
The House Oversight Committee was told that some of the presidential records from the Trump administration were outstanding due to non- official electronic systems used to conduct official business.
In its letter to Maloney, NARA cited a lawsuit filed last summer by the Justice Department asking a judge to order former Trump White House trade adviser Peter Navarro to return federal records the DOJ says he wrongfully kept after leaving the administration.
The return by former administration officials and lawyers of boxes and envelopes full of records was spurred by the back-and-forth with Trump and his liaisons. NARA’s findings in one of those collections prompted a Justice Department investigation into the mishandling of classified records and a search in August at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida beach club.
According to the filing, the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID was one of the uses of a private mail account for presidential business.
The National Archives was told about his private account from the House committee investigating the government’s response to the coronaviruses.
A top White House lawyer told two leading Republicans that their oversight requests from the last Congress would have to be revised once the GOP assumed their majority next week.
Jordan and Comer have threatened the use of subpoenas to obtain documents and information from the administration. As Republicans investigate, the White House said that Biden’s focus would remain on other priorities.
Jordan and Comer had started demanding records from the Biden administration beginning shortly after it became clear in November that Republicans would gain enough seats in the House to take the majority in the chamber from Democrats. December is when they set deadlines.
Two Republicans don’t have standing to make requests because the new Congress isn’t scheduled to start until next week, according to a letter from the special counsel to the president.
According to the White House’s oversight lawyers, the congress has not given such authority to individual member of congress who are not committee chairmen.
“Should the Committee issue similar or other requests in the 118th Congress, we will review and respond to them in good faith, consistent with the needs and obligations of both branches. The new Congress should be able to carry out their oversight responsibilities with the same spirit of good faith.
House Republicans have vowed to investigate a wealth of issues related to the Biden administration, including the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, Hunter Biden’s business engagements and the federal government’s response to school board meetings.
The White House was accused of playing games by House Judiciary Republicans who said that it showed how scared they were of congressional oversight.
In a statement, Comer said, “President Biden promised to have the most transparent administration in history but at every turn the Biden White House seeks to obstruct congressional oversight and hide information from the American people.”
White House officials believe Republicans are bound to overstep in their oversight requests and that their investigative overreach will backfire with the American public. They believe that a lot of proposed investigations are based on conspiracy theories and politically motivated charges.
Over the last two years, we have tried to provide appropriate information to Congress but Americans have made it clear that their leaders in Washington need to work on their top priorities, like lowering costs. That’s what the president will focus on, and we hope House Republicans join him,” Ian Sams, a spokesman for White House Counsel’s Office, said in a statement.
The political stunts by the minority suggest that the House Republicans might be spending a lot of time thinking about how to get booked on TV show than on working together to help the American people.
The House January 6 committee has warned President Joe Biden’s White House that it cannot ensure that the identity of personnel who cooperated with its probe on the condition of anonymity will remain protected once the panel dissolves on Tuesday.
The select committee had agreed it “would do its utmost to protect the identity” of certain personnel if the White House allowed them to sit for an interview.
But now the panel acknowledges it “cannot ensure enforcement of the commitment to maintain the confidentiality of the identity of the witnesses” because it will no longer exercise control over interview transcripts after it is dissolved, according to a December 30 letter.
The committee said in their letter that they would pass the official records to the National Archives, citing concern for the safety and security of witnesses.
The committee is working to send materials to the National Archives and Records Administration. In some cases, the panel has redacted the names of witnesses in transcripts made available for public review.
The panel said in a letter to the White House it is giving materials for review and instructions for proper handling by the Archives.