Trying to assign JS object from JSON file

I'm trying to read a JSON file (located on the same server) with Javascript in my ember app. I've seen the use of $.getJSON(), but this is all on the JS side, html isn't being touched here. I have the file in the public directory and simply want to assign the JSON object of the file to a variable. I'm not trying to display it to the user or request a file from the user's system.