The United States House of Representatives voted Wednesday to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for his refusal to turn over the audio from President Joe Biden’s (D) interviews with special prosecutor Robert Hur.
Attorney General Garland is now the third person in his position to ever be held in contempt of Congress.
The federal investigation into President Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified information ended last year with no formal charges being filed, due in part to Hur’s assertion that a jury would likely view the president as a “sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.”
The vote came down 216-207, with one Republican — Rep. David Joyce (R-OH) — voting no.
“As a former prosecutor,” Rep. Joyce said in a statement, “I cannot in good conscience support a resolution that would further politicize our judicial system to score political points.”
At the end of February, the Judiciary and Oversight Committees subpoenaed the audio recordings of two interviews conducted by Hur in connection with his investigation into allegations that President Biden mishandled classified documents.
After the Biden Administration asserted executive privilege and refused to turn over the audio tapes, these committees issued a report recommending that Garland be held in contempt for failing to comply with their subpoena.
Because Biden has asserted executive privilege, however, experts have said that any further criminal action against Garland unlikely.
Despite this, the resolution approved Wednesday includes a referral to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia for criminal prosecution.
“This is not a complicated matter: The executive branch and its agencies, including the Department of Justice, are not above Congress’ right to oversee those agencies,” said Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), according to NBC.
“We, as members of the House of Representatives, have a duty to ensure congressional subpoenas are fully complied with by those who received them — people, companies and particularly the federal government,” Rep. Comer said.
“Today the House took a significant step in maintaining the integrity of our oversight processes and responsibilites by holding Attorney General Garland in contempt of Congress,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) wrote on X Wednesday afternoon. “This decision was not made lightly but is essential to ensure transparency and accountability within the Special Counsel’s office.”
“It is up to Congress — not the Executive Branch — to determine what materials it needs to conduct its own investigations, and there are consequences for refusing to comply with lawful Congressional subpoenas,” Speaker Johnson said.
“Congress has a responsibility to conduct oversight of the Special Counsel’s work and specifically Special Counsel Hur’s determination not to prosecute President Biden for the clear violation of the law,” he continued.
“The Committees need the audio tapes ot verify the accuracy of the written transcripts given this White House has been known to heavily edit the President’s statements,” Johnson concluded. “This is a simple matter — we have the transcript, and we need the audio.”
My statement on holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress: pic.twitter.com/iys5UU3y2g
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) June 12, 2024
Garland has previously spoken out strongly against the possibility of the House finding him in contempt of Congress, arguing that the effort represents an inappropriate offensive against the Justice Department.
“There have been a series of unprecedented and frankly unfounded attacks on the Justice Department,” Garland said in a press conference last month. “This request, this effort to use contempt as a method of obtaining our sensitive law enforcement files is just most recent.”
“We will not be intimidated,” Garland wrote in a Washington Post op-ed Tuesday. “It is absurd and dangerous that public servants, many of whom risk their lives every day, are being threatened for simply doing their jobs and adhering to the principles that have long guided the Justice Department’s work.”
In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee last week, Garland argued that he has “gone beyond precedent” by allowing access to the full transcript of Hur’s interview with Biden.
He also suggested that handing the audio recordings over to Congress would “chill cooperation with the department in future investigations” and “could influence witnesses’ answers if they thought the audio of their law enforcement interviews would be broadcast to Congress and the public.”
The Department of Justice released a statement from Garland Wednesday afternoon in response to the House vote.
“It is deeply disappointing that this House of Representatives has turned a serious congressional authority into a partisan weapon,” Garland said. “Today’s vote disregards the constitutional separation of powers, the Justice Department’s need to protect its investigations, and the substantial amount of information we have provided to the Committees.”
“I will always stand up for this Department, its employees, and its vital mission to defend our democracy,” Garland concluded.
The Justice Department issued the following statement from Attorney General Merrick B. Garland regarding the U.S. House of Representatives’ vote on H. Res. 1292: https://t.co/20cJlTpVgN pic.twitter.com/XyFsJgv9qv
— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) June 12, 2024
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, has also publicly taken issue with the effort to find Garland in contempt of Congress.
“What do our Republican friends do when an investigation turns up short? Simply put, they engage in fantasy. That’s what they’re doing here today. Unable to come up with any wrongdoing by the president, they have now trained their sights on the attorney general,” Rep. Nadler said, according to NBC.
“This isn’t really about a policy disagreement with the DOJ. This is about feeding the MAGA base after 18 months of investigations that have produced failure after failure,” Nadler continued. “This contempt resolution will do very little other than smear the reputation of Merrick Garland, who will remain a good and decent public servant no matter what Republicans say about him today.”
Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) was not necessarily enthusiastic about finding Garland in contempt of Congress, but explained that he supported the effort because “citizens deserve to evaluate this for themselves.”
“I wish this could be settled without a contempt vote,” Rep. Bacon said in a statement, according to NBC. “But, the Attorney General owes the American people the audio recording regardless.”
“When Special Prosecutor Hur showed that President Biden willfully kept classified info in his house and garage, then the comparisons with what DOJ is prosecuting President Trump on becomes more similar,” he continued.
“Trump is being prosecuted, but Hur claims President Biden is too elderly with a bad memory to ever be taken to court. This is a very significant claim to make concerning our current President and the Democrat nominee,” Bacon added. “The citizens deserve to evaluate this for themselves.”
Earlier this month, Steve Bannon — who previously served as an advisor to former President Donald Trump (R) — was ordered by a federal judge Thursday to report to prison by July 1 to begin serving a four-month sentence for a 2022 contempt of Congress conviction.
Bannon was convicted nearly two years ago for failing to comply with a subpoena from the House committee investigating the events that took place on January 6, 2021.
While Republicans have argued that voters ought to hear the audio as it bears on Biden’s cognitive capacity to perform the job of Commander-in-Chief, Democratic operatives have said the GOP only wants the audio for campaign fodder.
Prior to Garland, former President Trump’s Attorney General William Barr was held in contempt of Congress in 2019, and former President Barack Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder was found to be in contempt in 2012.
Criminal prosecution was never pursued against either attorney general.
Wonder if the republicans will have the balls to lock him up like they did with Peter Navarro and now Steve Bannon? They should start playing the same games these demon crats are now playing.
Fight fire with fire – shove “law fare” in their face.
https://floridianpress.com/2024/06/luna-circulaties-letter-hold-garland-inherent-contempt-congress/#:~:text=Should%20the%20vote%20fail%2C%20Representative%20Anna%20Paulina%20Luna,is%20now%20being%20proposed%20as%20a%20significant%20measure.
There are cells in the basement of the Capitol. Just sayin’…
We need more representatives like Luna.
Listen to Rep. Anna Paulina Luna explain what the Sergeant at Arms is empowered to do, “if the DOJ doesn’t do their job”, Hopefully, they start to show a spine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i2luHz5Z60
Yeah,yeah, so the got the contempt vote through, but will anything come from it? Think not, he’s a democrat, nothing happens to them. D/C is beyond broken, all of D/C act more like 1935b Germany ! Wake up America, we’re in big trouble here!
Garland will skate on these charges just like Eric Holder did after “Fast and Furious”. It’s essential for Donald Trump to prosecute him after Trump assumes office in January.