EXCLUSIVE: The FBI is refusing to give the House Judiciary Committee a briefing on Iran’s hack of the Trump campaign and other key issues, Chairman Jim Jordan told Fox News Digital, saying that the American people deserve to have the information before Election Day.
Jordan, R-Ohio, spoke exclusively with Fox News Digital and said that he and his committee have been seeking a briefing in an unclassified setting to obtain information relating to Iran’s hack of the Trump campaign, and whether the former president and his team had been given a defensive briefing on the matter.
The FBI has told Fox News Digital that it is committed to working with the committee but did not say if or when officials would brief Jordan.
“This hacking of the Trump campaign by Iran — it looks like there was a dossier on JD Vance — that dossier winds up at the Harris campaign, and somehow, it happens to wind up in the press,” Jordan said. “There are lots of questions, like when did you find out about this? How did you find out about this? Did you give Trump a defensive briefing? Who was the person in the Harris campaign who got the information? How did they get the information? When did they tell you they had the information? How did it then get to the press?”
U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images)
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Jordan said, “Those are just questions off the top of my head.”
“It makes no sense, because we know if everything were reversed and the Iranians hacked the Harris campaign and there was a dossier on Tim Walz that ended up in the Trump campaign and then in the press, we know that they would all be going crazy,” Jordan said. “There would probably already be a special counsel.”
Former President Donald Trump (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Jordan also pointed to the fact that the hack was taken by an adversarial nation — Iran.
“This is the same country that says they are trying to assassinate President Trump. This is the same country who is the chief sponsor of terrorism. This is the same country that wants to assassinate [Israeli] Prime Minister Netanyahu. And this is the same country who just sent rockets to our best ally — ballistic missiles to our best ally — the State of Israel,” Jordan said. “And we want to be briefed on this hacking, and they won’t do it.”
Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The Trump campaign said that the documents had been obtained “illegally from sources hostile to the United States,” who “intended to interfere in the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process.”
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The hack by Iran came “after recent reports of an Iranian plot to assassinate President Trump around the same time as the Butler, PA tragedy.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Ohad Zwigenberg/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
The documents were sent to Politico and included a 271-page “dossier” that the Trump campaign had put together on his eventual running mate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, that dated back to February, the outlet said.
It included Vance’s past stances on issues, statements and previous criticisms of Trump in a section called “POTENTIAL VULNERABILITIES.”
Meanwhile, Jordan also said his committee has other questions relating to Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, including why the Justice Department released the “bounty letter” from the second attempted assassin, Ryan Routh, who offered $150,000 to someone who could “complete the job” against Trump if he were to fail.
The DOJ, in a court filing last month, released Routh’s letter as evidence in a detention memo by the Justice Department in an effort to ensure Routh’s detention.
A letter allegedly written by Trump assassination suspect Ryan Routh was revealed in a Department of Justice detention memo Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. (Martin County Sheriff’s Office/Handout via Reuters | Department of Justice)
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Jordan also told Fox News Digital he wants information from Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who testified last week that he would include in his highly anticipated report on Jan. 6, 2021 details about confidential human sources from the FBI and whether they had been embedded in the mob during the Capitol riot.
During the hearing last week, Horowitz was asked whether he would “expose that there were confidential human sources at the Capitol” on Jan. 6, and “how many went into the Capitol?”
Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz speaks during a Senate Judiciary hearing. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Horowitz replied, “I’ll have that information in the report.”
Horowitz, though, indicated his report would not be made public until after Election Day.
“Well, for goodness’ sake, it’s been four years,” Jordan said. “Why not give us that information now, right?”
But Jordan said that “the FBI will not sit down with the committee.”
Jordan stressed that the House Judiciary Committee is “the authorizing committee for the Justice Department.”
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“They will not sit down and talk with our committee, and it’s ridiculous,” Jordan said. “This is important information for the American people to know before a consequential election.”
Fox News Digital has learned that representatives for the House Judiciary Committee began requesting the briefing during a phone call on Sept. 24 with the FBI. The committee then had two phone calls on Sept. 25 with the FBI requesting a briefing, a call with the Justice Department on Oct. 1 requesting a briefing, and two calls with the FBI on Oct. 1 requesting a briefing.
The seal of the Federal Bureau of Investigation outside its headquarters in Washington, DC, on August 15, 2022. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
A source said representatives of the committee also left a voicemail for the FBI on Oct. 1 requesting a briefing and had a call with the FBI again on Oct. 2.
An FBI spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the bureau “has continually demonstrated its commitment to working with the Committee to accommodate its requests, and we have provided numerous documents and briefings.”
“The FBI recognizes the importance of congressional oversight and remains committed to cooperating with the Committee in good faith,” the FBI spokesperson said.
But that cooperation has not met Jordan’s requests, the chairman said, and warned that all options are on the table.
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“We have done more than 100 subpoenas this Congress, so every option is on the table for us to try to get the information that we believe the American people are entitled to have before making a decision, as I said, in an election that is so consequential,” Jordan told Fox News Digital.
“We’ve got important questions about important issues that impact our country and one of the major candidates for political office,” he said. “Give us the briefing, for goodness’ sake. Answer our questions.”
