Jim Jordan threatens to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray Monday threatening to hold him in contempt of Congress after the FBI allegedly failed to comply with subpoenas issued earlier in the year.

Jordan wrote that the FBI’s compliance in two separate subpoenas has been “wholly inadequate” and warned the House Judiciary Committee “will take action” against Wray if efforts to comply don’t improve. The two subpoenas Jordan references in the letter are in regard to the FBI’s surveillance of school boards and a memo from an FBI field office warning of connections between traditional Catholics and extremist movements.

“The FBI’s compliance with these subpoenas has been wholly inadequate and has materially impeded the Committee’s oversight efforts,” Jordan wrote in the letter. “After several accommodations, months of persistent outreach by the Committee, and attempts to negotiate and work with the FBI in good faith, we write to notify you that if the FBI does not improve its compliance substantially, the Committee will take action—such as the initiation of contempt of Congress proceedings—to obtain compliance with these subpoenas.”

The “School Board-related Threats” subpoena concerns FBI surveillance of parents at school board meetings in Virginia who expressed their frustration with the school’s curriculum and promotion of race-based education. The FBI had been asked to surveil potential threats from parents after receiving a letter from the National School Boards Association (NBSA) in 2021 that said “public schools and its education leaders are under immediate threat.” The NBSA later apologized for the letter after the FBI got involved.

#NEW: @Jim_Jordan threatens to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress for the Bureau’s failure to comply with the Committee’s subpoenas.

Read the letter to Wray ⬇️https://t.co/nZjQ8iUB0S

— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) July 17, 2023

The FBI had failed to deliver documentation and information regarding these surveillance efforts, Jordan said. The House Judiciary Committee issued a previous subpoena for this information in February, which prompted the FBI to hand over just four documents.

“The FBI’s productions to date have not included material the Committee knows is, or has reason to believe may be, in the FBI’s possession and that is responsive to the subpoena,” Jordan wrote in the letter.

The second subpoena regarding “Catholic Domain Perspective” concerns a memo from a former FBI agent that alleged the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) were investigating “radical traditionist” Catholics with supposed connections to “the far-right white nationalist movement.”

The House Judiciary Committee requested information regarding the investigation and initially never received any from the FBI, wrote Jordan. Several subpoenas later, the FBI finally handed over several hundred pages of heavily redacted documents – which was not enough, Jordan wrote.

“The FBI did not produce an unredacted version of the memorandum or any documents or communications concerning the process of drafting, reviewing, approving, or disseminating the memorandum — information that the subpoena compelled the FBI to produce,” wrote Jordan.

The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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