“[A]ll these things need to be investigated just so you have the truth, plus that will help frame up the 2024 race, when I hope and I think President Trump is going to run again and we need to make sure that he wins…” – Rep. Jim Jordan
Yesterday, MAGA House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy named far-right Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) Chairman of the influential House Judiciary Committee. He has already pledged to use his position of power not for legitimate oversight, but to use partisan, political stunts to “frame up” the 2024 election so that his party can win. Jim Jordan is a key leader in the MAGA movement. He worked closely with former President Trump to help him overturn the results of the 2020 election. Jordan opposed the creation of a January 6th Committee. He worked to protect members of the Trump administration from oversight – especially Trump’s children, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. Jim Jordan is a conspiratorial, far-right MAGA Republican who will only continue following Trump’s playbook in an effort to distract from the real issues Americans are facing across the country.
Jordan Intends to Launch Politically Motivated Investigations as Judiciary Committee Chair
Jordan Plans An “Onslaught” Of Investigations And Hearings After Years Of Politically Motivated Inquiries. Jordan and other Republicans are openly planning to launch politically motivated investigations of the Biden administration if they take control of Congress. Jordan plans to lead an “onslaught” of committee investigations into the Biden administration in the runup to 2024 on a variety of conspiratorial topics:
- In April, Jordan joined over 130 Republicans calling for impeachment proceedings against DHS Secretary Mayorkas after refusing to investigate the very same policies that were used for years by the Trump administration. Jordan intends to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas, alleging: “Mayorkas deserves (impeachment) for sure,” and, “when it comes to looking at an impeachment inquiry, I think Mr. Mayorkas certainly deserves it.” [Axios, 4/26/22; Newsmax via YouTube, 4/26/22; CNN, 10/6/22; “War Room: Pandemic,” Real America’s Voice, 10/7/22]
- Rep. Jordan says he will use investigative power to highlight false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 elections. [CNN, 1/13/22]
- Rep. Jordan claimed he will investigate the COVID-19 response by targeting Anthony Fauci and the CDC. [CNN, 1/13/22]
- Rep. Jordan promised that his House committee will look at “the impeachment question” for President Biden. [“Sunday Morning Futures,” Fox News, 10/9/22]
Jordan Has a History of Launching Baseless, Politically Motivated Probes. Jordan initially became prominent because of his key role in the years-long investigation of the Benghazi attack that cost millions of taxpayer dollars, encompassed 33 hearings and resulted in no new information or prosecutions, and he continues to re-litigate the 2016 election as a distraction from his role in 2020, tweeting in May 2022 about “Hillary Clinton’s dirty tricks” that supposedly undermined Donald Trump. [CNN, 1/13/22; Vanity Fair, 6/28/16; Rep. Jim Jordan Twitter (Archived), 5/27/22]
Jordan Is A Fervent Election Denier Who Worked Closely with Trump To Overturn A Free & Fair Election
Jim Jordan Is A Far-Right Extremist With Ties To Fringe Conspiracies. Jordan has maintained close ties with far-right conspiracy theorists. As co-founder of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, Jordan aligns himself with the most extreme Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill – many of whom openly pursue conspiracy theories that “should concern the hell out of people” according to former Rep. Denver Riggleman, a former member of the caucus who has labeled it “the Trump Protection Society.” Jordan was also one of the first to endorse QAnon-linked Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene – who was barred from committee assignments after spreading blatant misinformation and hate speech – for re-election. [Cleveland.com, 2/4/21; GRID, 10/6/22]
Jordan Engaged In A “Systematic Effort” To Undermine The 2020 Election. Jordan followed Trump’s election denier playbook throughout the 2020 election cycle. Before any votes were counted, he suggested – and directly alleged – that Democrats would try to “steal” the election. After Election Day, he endorsed MAGA conspiracy theories and called on Trump’s lawyers to investigate Dominion Voting Systems, using his own role to demand congressional investigations of alleged election fraud. In December 2020, he openly endorsed fringe legal theories in hopes of allowing state legislatures to overturn the will of voters. Jordan encouraged fellow lawmakers to object to certification on Jan. 6, called for a “special counsel” to investigate so-called voter fraud, and met with a group of Trump loyalists in the White House on Dec. 21 to coordinate plans to prevent Congress from certifying the election results. At every step of the way, Jordan embraced baseless conspiracy theories and dogmatic lies over the American people. [Just Security, Accessed 12/9/22]
Jordan Spoke “At Length” With Donald Trump On The Morning Of January 6. According to White House records made public by the Jan. 6 Committee, Donald Trump placed a phone call to Rep. Jim Jordan on January 6, 2021: “Two sources who have reviewed the call records tell CNN that Trump spoke on the phone at the White House residence with Jordan for 10 minutes on the morning of January 6. That afternoon, Jordan took to the House floor to object to the certification of President Joe Biden’s Electoral College win, and pro-Trump supporters attacked the US Capitol.” Since then, Jordan has repeatedly refused to provide consistent answers about the phone call that day. Jordan is also among the lawmakers who texted with Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff, speculating that then-Vice President Mike Pence could prevent the certification of Electoral College votes from the 2020 election. [USA Today, 12/16/21; CNN, 2/4/22]
Jordan Opposed Accountability for The Violence at the Capitol on January 6
The January 6 Committee Subpoenaed Jordan’s Appearance For A Deposition. He Refused To Comply. After his refusal to voluntarily cooperate, the January 6 committee subpoenaed Jordan and four other Republican lawmakers. Rather than comply with the subpoena, Jordan issued a list of demands of the committee, including access to all of the materials it plans on using to question him ahead of any deposition, all of the documents and testimony in the committee’s possession that reference him and an explanation of the legal authority upon which the committee relied in issuing a subpoena. Jordan called the subpoena “a dangerous escalation of House Democrats’ pursuit of political vendettas” and accused committee members of leading a partisan investigation that is not designed to seek the truth but instead to settle political scores with Donald Trump. The committee has extended Jordan’s deadline to comply with the subpoena to June 11, 2022. [Cleveland.com, 5/13/22; CNN, 5/25/22, 6/1/22]
Even As He Stonewalled The Committee, Jordan Has Used His Position On The House Judiciary Committee To Initiate Other Investigations. Even as he has refused to answer the January 6 committee’s questions about his role in events that led up to the riot, Jordan continues to use position as Ranking Member on the Judiciary Committee to demand answers from administration officials in other investigations. In May 2022 alone, Jordan sent letters to FTC Chair Lina Khan, DHS official Nina Jankowicz, and FBI Director Christopher Wray demanding documents and briefings. Jordan was particularly concerned that Wray was suspending security clearances of FBI employees who attended protests on January 6. [Reuters, 5/4/22; The Hill, 5/5/22; Washington Times, 5/6/22]
Jim Jordan Wants to Investigate the Biden Administration After Shielding Trump and His Allies From Oversight
Jordan Went Out of His Way to Defend Donald Trump – Even While He Knew There Was Damning Information. In 2019, Jordan worked to frame the Ukraine scandal as a pointless investigation, even when he knew there was more damning information yet to come and defended Trump’s stonewalling tactics. Jordan even told a U.S. diplomat that he was “wrong” to have said there was a clear understanding that President Donald Trump was withholding military aid to Ukraine in exchange for investigations of Democrats. Prior to the Ukraine scandal, Jordan went out of his way to protect Trump from the Mueller Report as well, criticizing the Special Counsel which lasted 22 months and netted 34 indictments of both Russian nationals and people from within President Donald Trump’s inner circle on counts of hacking emails, lying to investigators, financial crimes, and numerous other charges. [The Daily Beast, 10/16/22; PBS, 11/13/19; Newsweek, 3/24/19]
Jordan Opposed Subpoenas Looking Into Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon, and Ivanka Trump’s Use of Private Email and Messaging Accounts. “Rep. Jordan told Politico on July 29, 2019, that he was opposed to the subpoenas looking into the probable illegal use of outside email and messaging accounts by White House officials including Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon, and Ivanka Trump. […] Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the Oversight Committee, said the subpoena resolution was ‘an attempt to create an appearance of some type of controversy,’ accusing Democrats of trying to ‘go fishing’ through the personal email accounts of Trump’s family members.” [Politico, 7/29/19]
- Jordan Blocked Efforts to Subpoena Jared Kushner and Far-Right White House Advisor Steve Bannon. In July 2019, Rep. Jordan voted against the issuing of subpoenas to Trump administration officials related to the committee’s investigation of obstruction of justice and public corruption investigation within the Trump administration. He voted against issuing a subpoena to President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner and other Trump White House officials. Two years prior, Rep. Jordan voted to block a subpoena being issued to senior Trump White House advisor Steve Bannon – twice. [CQ Roll Call, 7/11/19; CQ Roll Call, 7/12/18; House Judiciary Committee Business Meeting, 7/12/18]
Jordan Opposed Bipartisan Oversight Efforts To Investigate the Trump Administration’s Child Separation Policy. Jordan and Republicans on the House Oversight Committee strongly opposed bipartisan efforts to investigate the policy of forced child separation along the southern border: “After a heated exchange and a rehashing of the political debate over the Trump administration’s child separation policy, the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Tuesday approved the first subpoenas of the executive branch for the 116th Congress. In a 25-11 roll call vote, the committee authorized the issuance of subpoenas to Attorney General William Barr, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen and Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar. […] As chairman, Cummings has the authority to issue subpoenas himself but scheduled the committee vote because of a commitment he made to the panel’s ranking member Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.” [CQ Roll Call, 2/26/19]
Jordan Voted to Block Attempts to Force Trump’s Justice Department to Hand Over Records Involving Foreign Government Investments with President Trump, Ivanka Trump, the Trump Organization, and Two Trump Loyalists. Rep. Jordan and fellow House Judiciary Committee Republicans blocked a June 2018 attempt by Democrats to force the Trump administration’s Department of Justice to provide all information related to any investment by any foreign government or foreign government agent in any entity owned completely or partly by President Donald Trump. [CQ Roll Call, 6/26/18]
Jordan Defended Trump’s Most Outlandish Claims and Accusations
Jordan Blocked an Attempt to Have Attorney General Jeff Sessions Provide Documents Related to President Trump’s Wild Accusations on Twitter That President Obama Had “Wire Tapped” the Trump Campaign. During a meeting of the House Judiciary Committee in March 2017, Jordan House Republicans voted to block efforts to have Attorney General Jeff Sessions provide documents related to President Trump’s wild claim on Twitter that President Obama had “wire tapped” the 2016 Trump campaign. [CQ Roll Call, 3/29/17]
Jordan Downplayed the Hush Money Trump’s Attorney Paid to Women to Cover Up Affairs. “Jordan later deflected when asked if he was bothered by payments the president’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, made to women who alleged they had affairs with Trump. Those dealings are the subject of a separate investigation in the Southern District of New York.” [Newsweek, 3/24/19]