Liam Conner
Washington – Two Republican-led House committees are expected to consider dismissing Congress’ resolution against Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday for defying his request for audio recordings of the classified documents case against President Biden.
The Judiciary and Oversight committees are moving forward with the increases after the Justice Department refused to turn over an audio recording of former special counsel Robert Hur’s interview with the president in October 2023, which occurred as part of his investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents.
Hur wrapped up the yearlong investigation months ago, releasing a highly anticipated report in February. Although Hur’s report vindicated the president, it included some highly critical conclusions. The committees subpoenaed to the Department of Justice for audio recording and other materials from the investigation.
The Justice Department provided the transcripts to Congress and wrote in a letter to committee chairmen last month that it had not identified an “investigative purpose” for turning over the audio. Assistant Attorney General Carolos Uriarte said in the letter that the Justice Department was “concerned” that the recording request was intended to “serve political purposes that should have no role in the handling of police files.” And he noted that it could also create a “chilling” effect on future investigations.
But committee leaders pushed ahead, arguing that the audio recordings “are important to our investigation into President Biden’s intentional withholding of classified documents and his fitness to be president of the United States.”
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“There must be consequences for refusing to comply with Congress’ lawful subpoenas, and we will take action to hold Attorney General Garland accountable for contempt of Congress,” Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, said in a statement.
Reports in the committees detailed how they subpoenaed the audio recording and other records, in part to determine whether “sufficient grounds exist to draft articles of impeachment against President Biden,” arguing that the subpoenas issued to the Justice Department are part of the House impeachment inquiry .
“The Department did not invoke any constitutional or legal privileges to support the retention of this material,” the reports state. “His failure to fully comply with the Committees’ subpoenas undermined the House’s ability to properly conduct Special Counsel Hur’s oversight of his investigative findings and the President’s withholding and disclosure of confidential materials and impeded the Committees’ impeachment inquiry.”
The reports argued that the audio recordings of the interview have “superior evidentiary value,” saying the transcripts “do not reflect important verbal context, such as tone or tenor, or nonverbal context, such as pauses or pace of delivery.”
With back-to-back appointments on Thursday, the committees are expected to vote to begin proceedings to hold Garland accountable for contempt of Congress, a major back-and-forth escalation so far. If the issue were to leave the committees, it would be taken to the Chamber plenary.
The resolution directs House Speaker Mike Johnson to certify that Garland has defied the subpoena and refer the matter to the U.S. attorney in Washington for possible prosecution, which would be highly unlikely.
If the GOP-controlled chamber votes to hold Garland in contempt, he would be the latest in a short list of Cabinet members who have faced the same fate. In 2012, former Attorney General Eric Holder was held in contempt, as was former Attorney General Bill Barr in 2019. But neither faced criminal charges from their own Justice Departments.
The Hur report
In a 345-page report released in February, Hur described Biden’s handling of confidential documents he kept in his possession following his term as vice president. The special counsel said the president’s conduct posed “serious risks to national security” but ruled that pursuing criminal charges was “not the appropriate solution.” The evidence did not establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Biden violated the law, Hur concluded.
Yet Hur’s report also included a series of observations about the president’s memory that became fodder for Republican opposition in the weeks after its publication. Among the most damning was an allegation that Biden could not remember when his son, Beau Biden, died. The interview transcript showed that the president had difficulty identifying the year, but correctly named the month and date.
Hur testified in March before the House Judiciary Committee, where he faced criticism from both sides of the aisle. At the time, Republicans argued that the decision not to recommend charges against Biden was evidence of a two-tier judicial system, given the charges Trump faces for allegedly withholding confidential material. And Democrats criticized the former special counsel’s characterization of Biden’s memory as inaccurate and unnecessary.
When asked whether Congress should have access to the recordings, Hur said “it’s not up to me to evaluate what information Congress should or shouldn’t have.” He added that “the audio recordings were part of the evidence, of course, that I considered in reaching my conclusions.”
