Attorney General Merrick Garland could be held in contempt over withholding audio tapes subpoenaed by members of Congress. The recording stems from the Justice Department’s classified documents investigation into Joe Biden's mishandling of classified materials. The report filed by Special Counsel Robert Hur didn’t bring charges against the president because his old age and poor memory were mitigating circumstances in court. These observations are within department policy—Hur had to inform his bosses of all the obstacles the DOJ could encounter in such a scenario. The Left went nuts over the memory part.
Forget that CNN legal analysts cut through the nonsense and said Biden knew he had classified materials, retained them, and misled the public about them; the president’s lawyer attested to Mr. Biden's mental tenacity. Fine—let’s play the tapes.
Now, we have Merrick Garland speaking with the press after the decision was made by Biden to assert executive privilege over the recordings. The Justice Department recommended he do so because some subpoenas can be ignored. In essence, Garland said that the DOJ is so essential that it can ignore such requests it doesn’t like. He noted the attacks on the DOJ, specifically the allegations of political partisanship. Mr. Garland, you just offered evidence to such allegations, stamped with the seal of the attorney general of the United States (via NYT):
Garland saying he suggested to the President to invoke Executive Privilege over his Special Counsel's own audio. Incredible
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) May 16, 2024
AG Merrick Garland claims that because the DOJ is “a fundamental institution of our democracy” it shouldn’t obey a subpoena from elected lawmakers. pic.twitter.com/PJGrfY8hAS
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) May 16, 2024
Mr. Garland, speaking briefly with reporters outside his office, said the bid by Republicans was the latest in “a series of unprecedented and, frankly, unfounded attacks on the Justice Department” that included efforts to defund the special counsel prosecuting former President Donald J. Trump.
[…]
Mr. Garland initiated the executive privilege claim in a letter to Mr. Biden, arguing that Mr. Hur’s interviews with the president and his ghost writer “fall within the scope of executive privilege.”
Handing them over “would raise an unacceptable risk” of undermining “similar high-profile criminal investigations — in particular, investigations where the voluntary cooperation of White House officials is exceedingly important,” he said.
For months, Garland has been on Biden’s bad side, reportedly over the Justice Department’s lethargic pace concerning investigating Donald Trump. Biden allegedly thinks that a trial could have been either started or ended by now concerning the former president’s classified document event and the inquiry into January 6, both trials have been delayed. Biden wanted to weaponize these DOJ trials to go after Trump and couldn’t. Now, it seems Garland has taken the role of errand boy, who, for now, appears to be doing all he can to please his grocery clerk, Joe Biden.
On one front, Biden's own lawyer opened him up to this debacle concerning the tapes, which are now being covered by executive privilege. Garland decided to take a stand against the perception of a partisan DOJ...by taking a partisan legal course of action regarding audio tapes that involve the president of the United States and allegations of mishandling classified information.
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