House to vote on holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for withholding Biden audio

washington – The House is scheduled to vote Wednesday on whether to detain Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas related to President Biden’s handling of classified documents.

The Republican-led House Judiciary and Oversight committees demanded that Garland turn over audio recordings of the president’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur as part of his impeachment investigation.

Mr. Biden stated executive privilege about recordings of Hur’s interviews with the president and the ghostwriter of his book, while committees advanced contempt resolutions against Garland.

A vote on the House floor has been up in the air since committees voted along party lines in May recommend that Garland be held in contempt. It’s unclear whether Republicans have enough support to pass the measure — they can only lose two defections with their slim majority if all members are present and voting. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a Republican from Louisiana, said he was confident his party had enough votes to get over the finish line.

If the resolution passes, it would instruct the Speaker of the House to refer the case to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia for possible criminal prosecution.

A House Judiciary Committee report argued that the audio recordings of the interviews have “superior evidentiary value” because the transcripts the Justice Department provided to Congress “do not reflect important verbal context, such as tone or tenor, or nonverbal context, such as pauses or pace of delivery.” He also claims the transcripts are “insufficient to arbitrate this dispute regarding President Biden’s mental state.”

Hur, who was named by Garland, released a 345-page report in February, which described Biden’s handling of confidential documents he kept after serving as vice president. Hur declined to seek criminal charges, saying the evidence did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Biden violated the law. The special counsel made a series of remarks about the president’s memory that infuriated the White House and provided political leverage to Republicans.

The Justice Department argued that releasing the recordings could have a chilling effect on witness cooperation in future high-profile investigations.

“I see contempt as a serious matter,” Garland he said at a Judiciary Committee hearing on June 4. “But I will not jeopardize the ability of our prosecutors and agents to do their jobs effectively in future investigations.”

Republicans say executive privilege was waived when the Justice Department turned over the transcripts and also claim the transcripts were altered.

Democrats called the effort a political stunt and say the Justice Department substantially cooperated with GOP requests in its impeachment investigationwhich stagnated at the beginning of this year after testimony from the president’s sonHunter Biden, failed to deliver a smoking gun.

“They want to pore over five hours of President Biden’s recorded interview looking not for an impeachable offense – because they know that doesn’t exist right now – but for a verbal error, like a mispronounced name that they could turn in a political name TV attack ad in the presidential campaign,” Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said Tuesday.

Cabinet officials held in contempt of Congress is not unprecedented. In 2019, the Democratic-controlled House voted to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt for defying congressional subpoenas related to a dispute over the 2020 census. contempt of Attorney General Eric Holder in 2012 for failing to turn over documents related to the Fast and Furious Scandal.

— Ellis Kim contributed reporting.