Republican House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan is threatening to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress for heavily redacting and withholding subpoenaed documents related to the FBI’s targeting of traditional Catholics and parents at school board meetings.
“To date, the FBI’s compliance with these subpoenas has been wholly inadequate and has materially impeded the Committee’s oversight efforts,” wrote Jordan in a letter to Wray on Monday. “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.”
Targeting Parents at School Board Meetings
As Jordan noted in the letter, the Judiciary Committee subpoenaed the bureau on Feb. 3 after it “failed to sufficiently comply” with their request for documents related to the FBI “orchestrating and enforcing the Attorney General’s October 4, 2021, memorandum directing federal law enforcement resources to address a purported increase in school board-related threats.”
[READ: Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Message To Concerned Parents Is Clear: Shut Up Or Else]
By the subpoena’s March 1 deadline, the agency had only produced a measly “four redacted pages of school board-related documents.” The FBI claimed in a cover letter accompanying the pages that its minimal compliance was “consistent with the accommodation process,” according to Jordan. The committee then “agreed to accept documents on a
