The House Judiciary Committee has voted to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over audio and video recordings of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s interview with Joe Biden.
The committee voted 18 to 15 in favor of this move.
#BREAKING: The House Judiciary Committee just voted to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for failing to provide the lawfully subpoenaed audio tapes of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s interview of President Biden.
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) May 16, 2024
This news comes just hours after Joe Biden abused his power by invoking executive privilege to prevent the recordings of the interview from being released. They really do not want those tapes released.
Why wouldn’t they want the American public to see why Robert Hur decided that Joe Biden is nothing more than “a well meaning elderly man with a poor memory?”
The written transcript of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s interview previously revealed that Biden mentioned his late son Beau’s death and needed his handlers to remind him of the date. The transcript also confirms Biden’s confusion about his tenure as vice president. At one point, as noted by the National Pulse, Biden asked Hur, “Was I still vice president? I was, wasn’t I? Yeah.”
The House Oversight Committee is expected to take action soon to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland accountable. On Wednesday, Rep. Comer told Just the News that they have the votes needed to hold Garland in contempt of Congress.
The House Oversight Committee initially scheduled its meeting for Thursday also but rescheduled it to 8 p.m. on Thursday night, in order to accommodate several GOP members who were attending President Trump’s “hush money” trial in New York.
Washington Examiner reported:
The House Judiciary Committee voted to move forward with holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress on Thursday, one of two committees taking up the issue as part of a larger House Republican effort to build an impeachment case against President Joe Biden.
Judiciary Committee members voted 18 to 15 to advance the contempt resolution against Garland for refusing to hand over audio recordings from special counsel Robert Hur’s interview with Biden related to his classified documents case.
The House Oversight Committee, the other committee taking up a contempt resolution, moved their meeting from Thursday morning to 8 p.m. on Thursday night to accommodate the attendance of several Oversight GOP members at former President Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial in New York.
While Republicans traveled to the Empire State, Biden went on the offense ahead of the House Judiciary Committee’s markup on the resolution. The Justice Department announced Thursday morning that the president was asserting executive privilege over the recordings, placing another roadblock in the way of House Republicans as they continue to argue with the DOJ over whether Congress should have access to the audio recording.
Now that the contempt resolution has been advanced, it will go to the floor for a full House vote to be scheduled by House leadership. If it passes the full House, a criminal referral is made to the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., which must then weigh whether to move forward with prosecution.
The committee’s contempt resolution would likely not result in any criminal proceedings for Garland, as he heads the Justice Department. Spokespeople for the DOJ have disputed the legitimacy of the committee’s efforts and warned that releasing audio would have a chilling effect on witnesses coming forward to law enforcement.
House GOP members on the Judiciary Committee spent most of the hearing declaring that the executive branch “doesn’t get to choose” what evidence they provide to the committee, while House Democrats blasted Republicans for politicizing the issue and wanting the audio recording for “Donald Trump’s campaign commercials” or use Biden’s stutter to “smear” him.
A major talking point during the hearing was whether Republicans displayed a need for the audio recording while already possessing Hur’s interview transcript. Some Judiciary GOP members claimed the transcript could have been altered and fake during the hearing, and others said executive privilege is not applicable during an impeachment inquiry.
“That tape must be quite something if the administration of the president has decided to assert executive privilege to keep it from the committee in the course of an impeachment inquiry. Think about it,” Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) said. “The basis for withholding the audio recording, when the transcript has been furnished, must rest on something about the recording that is distinct from the information contained in the transcript.”
Though the president’s conduct posed “serious risks to national security,” Hur said in his report that he did not charge Biden because he believed a jury would find him a “sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory” and likely not convict him for this reason.
Merrick Garland was visibly rattled over being held in Contempt of Congress.
Garland told reporters that the lawful congressional subpoena was “not legitimate” and would harm the DOJ’s ability to successfully pursue sensitive investigations.
Watch:
Merrick Garland just said the DOJ doesn’t have to obey a subpoena from Congress.
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) May 16, 2024
So much for “no one is above the law.”pic.twitter.com/oJTzeQtGMQ
