Throughout the 2022 election cycle, there was this popular narrative that if the Republicans won the midterms, they could somehow magically shut down the DOJ’s criminal investigations into Donald Trump and other Republicans. Of course nothing works that way, and now we’re seeing how things really work.

House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan recently demanded that the DOJ turn over evidence about ongoing criminal cases. In its formal response today, the DOJ’s answer was a long winded version of “no.” The reason: the DOJ does not provide anyone with evidence in ongoing investigations.

This was the only way this was going to play out. There wasn’t going to be a different outcome, where the DOJ just decided to give House Republicans evidence in its ongoing probes for the heck of it. Nor were House Republicans going to be able to wave some magic wand that forces the DOJ to turn over such evidence. Nor can the House magically defund the DOJ. These just aren’t real things. While these kinds of threats are good for making Republicans look strong in the eyes of their deranged base, and good for helping the media hit its ratings marks, they’re still not real things.

What the House Judiciary Committee can (and will) do is hold public hearings in which they speculate, theorize, and flat out lie about what the DOJ may or may not be doing. And the committee may force the likes of Attorney General Merrick Garland to testify during those sham hearings. But when he’s asked questions about ongoing investigations into people like Trump, the only response he’ll give is a polite version of “no.”

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