The Justice Department announced it will not prosecute Merrick Garland for contempt of Congress after he defied a congressional subpoena to hand over audio recordings of Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur.
In a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, the DOJ stated, “Consistent with this longstanding position and uniform practice, the Department has determined that the responses by Attorney General Garland to the subpoenas issued by the Committees did not constitute a crime, and accordingly, the Department will not bring the congressional contempt citation before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute the Attorney General.”
AP News reported:
Attorney General Merrick Garland will not be prosecuted for contempt of Congress because his refusal to turn over audio of President Joe Biden’s interview in his classified documents case “did not constitute a crime,” the Justice Department said Friday.
In a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Justice Department official cited the department’s longstanding policy not to prosecute officials who don’t comply with subpoenas because of a president’s claim of executive privilege.
On Wednesday afternoon, the United States House of Representatives voted to hold U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress, in a 216-207 vote, for refusing to hand over audio recordings of special counsel Robert Hur’s interview with Joe Biden.
Garland has reportedly “classified at the highest level” the embarrassing audio tapes of the Biden-Hur interview, locking them away in a Sensitive Compartment Information Facility (SCIF).
