Last Monday, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) fired off a warning letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray that he could be held in contempt of Congress if he did not turn over documents related to the bureau's targeting of concerned parents at school board meetings, as well as the targeting of Catholics. On Tuesday night, Jordan revealed the Committee is no longer looking to take such action.
According to CNN's Manu Raju, Jordan pointed out that his Committee "got really information today, some stuff we've been after." Although he's "surprised they didn't give it to us before," he emphasized it's "good stuff."
Jim Jordan told me his committee not planning to move on contempt charges for FBI Director Wray after bureau provided records he had been seeking.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) July 26, 2023
“We got really good information today. Some stuff we've been after, I am surprised they didn’t give it to us before but good stuff”
Tuesday had indeed been the deadline for the FBI to comply. The Washington Examiner had reported earlier on Tuesday about the handed over documents, which also came with a letter from Christopher Dunham, the acting assistant director for the Office of Congressional Affairs at the FBI.
Despite the FBI director nearly being held in contempt, Dunham's letter claimed that "[t]he FBI takes our oversight obligations seriously, as evidenced by the significant good faith efforts we have made to satisfy the wide range of oversight requests made of the FBI by the 118th Congress," going on to further discuss the FBI's response to requests in a self-congratulatory manner.
As Jordan had mentioned in his July 17 letter, what the FBI had previously provided had been "wholly inadequate." The chairman also complained about receiving redacted copies of a memo targeting Catholics during a Judiciary Committee hearing from earlier this month on FBI oversight.
TARGETING CATHOLICS: Why did the @FBI want to investigate Catholics? @Jim_Jordan pic.twitter.com/L4o2xnrjn2
— CatholicVote (@CatholicVote) July 12, 2023
Back in 2021, it was revealed that the Biden administration had colluded with school board associations to target parents as "domestic terrorists," something Attorney General Merrick Garland has sought to cover up. Whistleblowers not long after came forward to reveal that the FBI had created a "threat tag" to track parents.
In February of this year, a leaked memo from the Richmond FBI field office revealed that the bureau was looking to target and infiltrate Catholic Churches for "new avenues for tripwire and source development," something that Garland also misled on. The DOJ has been overall cagey on the matter and is now facing a lawsuit from CatholicVote and Judicial Watch.
"We're not moving forward with contempt of Wray on Thursday. We're reviewing the documents the FBI provided today, and everything remains on the table," a spokesperson for Jordan told the Washington Examiner.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) had considered holding Wray in contempt last month, but ultimately backed down after the FBI allowed committee members to view documents and receive a briefing related to a bribery scheme involving then Vice President Joe Biden and a foreign national.
As was also announced Tuesday, Jordan’s Committee is still looking to hold Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in contempt though, with a markup session set for Thursday.
Last week, sources had confirmed to Townhall that Jordan was considering a contempt charge for Zuckerberg due to Meta’s failure to fully comply with subpoena requests regarding documents on how the social media giant colluded with the Executive branch to censor Americans.
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