It’s not surprising that President Biden and his administration would resist oversight by Republicans in the House of Representatives, but it’s notable that the White House is already kicking off what’s likely to be a concerted attempt to stonewall the new House majority’s investigations of the Biden administration.
According to reporting from Politico — which appears to have been a coordinated leak from the White House to get in front of the story, as Rebecca reported Wednesday night — Biden’s White House legal team notified GOP Reps. Jim Jordan (OH) and James Comer (KY) that their requests for information from the Biden administration would not be heeded because they were “constitutionally illegitimate.”
White House lawyer Richard Sauber told Jordan and Comer that “Congress has not delegated such authority to individual members of Congress who are not committee chairmen, and the House has not done so under its current Rules.” That means that Republicans leading oversight efforts must, essentially, restart their investigations. Never mind, apparently, that Jordan is expected to be the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Comer is likely the next chairman of the House Oversight Committee in the new Congress.
So — on something of a technicality — Biden’s White House lawyers tasked with shielding the president and his administration from scrutiny and slowing Republican investigations rejected the requests for information and said the West Wing would not heed the GOP inquiries.
via joemiller