Jim Jordan

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) is Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a leader of Trump’s efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election. Jordan has been criticized for creating an “antidemocratic, two-tiered system of justice.” Despite defying his own lawful subpoena, he has issued at least 91 subpoenas to others. Jordan is also focused on investigating state and local law enforcement officials who are prosecuting Trump for attempts at election interference.

Jordan has been an enabler and apologist for Donald Trump for years, and he was a vocal advocate of Trump’s efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election on January 6, 2021. Following the 2020 presidential election that Joe Biden won, Jordan was a vocal denier of the election results. He also supported lawsuits to challenge the election results, voted not to certify the Electoral College results, and refused to cooperate with the bipartisan U.S. House Select Committee investigating the January 6th attack on the Capitol, which subpoenaed him in May 2022. He acknowledges sending the following text message to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows: “On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, should call out all the electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all.” However, Jordan claimed he was merely forwarding this message.

The U.S. House Select Committee investigating the January 6th attack made detailed findings about Jordan’s role, documenting that “Representative Jordan was a significant player in President Trump’s efforts. He participated in numerous post-election meetings in which senior White House officials, Rudolph Giuliani, and others, discussed strategies for challenging the election, chief among them claims that the elec-tion had been tainted by fraud. On January 2, 2021, Representative Jordan led a conference call in which he, President Trump, and other Members of Congress discussed strategies for delaying the January 6th joint session. During that call, the group also discussed issuing social media posts encouraging President Trump’s supporters to ‘march to the Capitol’ on the 6th […] He spoke with President Trump by phone at least twice on January 6th, though he has provided inconsistent public statements about how many times they spoke and what they discussed. He also received five calls from Rudolph Giuliani that evening, and the two connected at least twice, at 7:33 p.m. and 7:49 p.m.”

Jordan also helped create the far-right House Freedom Caucus in 2015 and was its first chairman. The caucus opposes immigration reform, and has sought dozens of times to repeal the Affordable Care Act. It also ousted a Republican House Speaker– a first in the history of Congress. The caucus is considered part of the MAGA movement, composed of Trump loyalists. After Trump took office, Jordan said that the group rightly shifted focus from trying to pass legislation to “fiercely defending Trump.” John Mulvaney (R-SC), one of the caucus’ founding members, said, “Trump wants to turn Washington upside down – that was his first message and his winning message. We want the exact same thing. To the extent that he’s got to convince Republicans to change Washington, we’re there to help him … and I think that makes us Donald Trump’s best allies in the House.”

During Trump’s presidency, Jordan attempted to discredit investigations into Russian Interference during the 2016 presidential election. In 2018, Jordan, along with then Representative Mark Meadows (R-NC), filed a resolution to compel the Department of Justice (DOJ) to provide documents to Congress pertaining to the ongoing Russian interference investigation. The resolution accused the DOJ of stonewalling Congress and sought documents related to the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, as well as FBI documents related to decisions made by the department during the 2016 presidential election.

In 2019, Jordan and two dozen other Republicans staged a protest that delayed a Trump impeachment inquiry hearing over the Trump–Zelensky controversy regarding Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine. The protest disrupted the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence hearing where Republican and Democratic congressional members had planned to depose Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Laura Cooper.

In January 2021, Trump awarded Jordan with the nation’s highest civilian honor—the Medal of Freedom.

This profile has been updated.