Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday launched an investigation into a meeting between members of the Biden administration and investigators for special counsel Jack Smith that took place just weeks before Mr. Smith brought criminal charges against former President Donald Trump.

In letters to President Biden‘s Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and Attorney General Merrick Garland, lawmakers asked them to turn over all communications related to the meeting as well as communications between the White House and Justice Department regarding Mr. Smith‘s probes. The committee has also requested all relevant information on the meetings which included Jay Bratt, a top Smith deputy.

The letters don’t threaten a subpoena but requested that the materials be turned over to the committee by Sept. 12. It’s still possible that the committee will issue a subpoena if records are not turned over.

“This new information raises serious concerns regarding the potential for a coordinated effort between the Department and the White House to investigate and prosecute President Biden‘s political opponents,” wrote Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican.

Peter Carr, a spokesperson for the special counsel, said his office “will decline to comment on case-related interviews at this time.”

The White House did not respond to requests for comment.

White House visitor logs revealed that Mr. Bratt had a March 31, 2023 meeting with Caroline Saba, deputy chief of staff for the White House counsel’s office.

They were joined in the 10 a.m. meeting by Danielle Ray, an FBI agent in the Washington field office.

A few weeks after the meeting, Mr. Smith‘s team indicted Mr. Trump on charges stemming from his handling of classified government documents.

Mr. Bratt also met with Ms. Saba at the White House in November 2021, when the National Archives were pressing Mr. Trump to return government documents that had been transferred from the White House to Mar-a-Lago, the visitor logs show. A third meeting between Mr. Bratt and the White House took place in September 2021 with Katherine Reily, an advisor to the White House chief of staff’s office.

Ms. Saba has since left the White House to attend law school.

The logs offer no information about what was discussed at the meetings.

Mr. Jordan said there was no reason for Mr. Bratt to be meeting with the White House counsel’s office while investigating Mr. Biden‘s expected 2024 Republican opponent.

“These facts reinforce the serious concerns that Mr. Smith is not running an impartial and unprejudiced investigation and prosecution,” he wrote.

Earlier this year, Stanley Woodward, an attorney for Mr. Trump’s co-defendant in the documents case, Walt Nauta, accused Mr. Bratt of impropriety. Mr. Woodward claims that Mr. Bratt tried to coerce his client’s cooperation by dangling his past application to be a federal judge.

• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.