Jordan Calls for AG to Testify on Alleged Congressional Spying

House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, issued a subpoena to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday over the Justice Department’s use of its powers to obtain “private communications” of lawmakers and congressional aides.

Jordan’s letter to Garland stems from DOJ’s 2017 investigation into media leaks surrounding the Russia-Donald Trump investigation, centering on Carter Page, in the aftermath of the 2016 election. The DOJ later admitted that there was “insufficient predication” to surveil Page.

Jordan first wrote to Garland on Oct. 31, his first attempt to get information about DOJ’s spying on lawmakers. That same day, Jordan said in an interview that “we now know that they spied on congressional staffers.”

Garland now has until Jan. 19 to turn over the information Jordan has sought.

“Because the Department has not complied in full with our requests, we cannot independently determine whether the Department sought to alleviate the heightened separation-of-powers sensitivities involved or whether the Department first sought the information through other means before resorting to legal process,” Jordan wrote in Tuesday’s letter.

Jordan’s quest began when a former staffer of Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, revealed in late October that Google informed him of a DOJ subpoena in 2017 seeking information about him and his family members.

In his letter, Jordan noted DOJ’s legal process to obtain private communications of GOP and Democrats’ employees in both chambers of Congress while investigating “unauthorized disclosure of classified information in a national media publication.”

“According to news reports, this investigation centered on FISA warrants obtained by the Justice Department on former Trump campaign associate Carter Page. At the time, the FISA warrant on Mr. Page was the subject of robust Congressional oversight and vigorous debate in Congress. The Justice Department Office of Inspector General later determined that the Department abused its FISA authority to surveil Mr. Page, and the Department admitted there was ‘insufficient predication’ for the warrant,” Jordan wrote.