It was a razor-thin vote, but Attorney General Merrick Garland has been found in contempt of Congress. It’s been framed as a symbolic step, and it probably is, though former Trump officials Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon are either set to or are currently serving prison time for defying congressional subpoenas. The Biden Justice Department is at war with congressional Republicans after they refused to turn over the audio tapes of Special Counsel Robert Hur, who interviewed Joe Biden during his investigation into whether Biden mishandled classified documents (via Politico):
House Republicans voted on Wednesday to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress — dramatically escalating their fight with the Justice Department.
There was lingering skepticism just hours before the 216-207 vote about whether GOP leaders would be able to lock down the near unity required. Ultimately, nearly every Republican voted to take the largely symbolic step, which refers the attorney general to the DOJ for prosecution, with Democrats united in opposition.
Only Ohio Rep. David Joyce voted against it on the Republican side.
Shortly after this vote, the Justice Department issued a memo declaring that the attorney general cannot be prosecuted. Merrick Garland felt it appropriate to write that he is above the law (via The Hill):
An internal Justice Department (DOJ) memo argued Attorney General Merrick Garland would be protected from prosecution for contempt of Congress given President Biden’s assertion of executive privilege over audio tapes Republicans have sought by subpoena.
The 57-page memo from the department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), obtained by The Hill, lays out the case for Garland’s refusal to turn over the audio of Biden’s conversation with special counsel Robert Hur. The GOP already has a transcript of the interview.
The OLC, which operates as a legal adviser for the department, wrote that no administration official has been prosecuted for failing to comply with a subpoena when the president has claimed executive privilege.
“For nearly seven decades and across presidential administrations of both parties, the Executive Branch has taken the position that the criminal contempt of Congress statute … does not apply to Executive Branch officials who do not comply with a congressional subpoena based on a presidential assertion of executive privilege,” according to the memo.
It's more legal jabberwocky because there’s no legal standing for him to refuse to turn over the tapes. The transcript has been released. It’s not like this information isn’t out there. We want the audio, and Biden’s legal team made this case. When Hur described Biden as an old man with a failing memory in his report, the president’s attorneys rushed to say that wasn’t their recollection of how he behaved during the interview. Fine. Release the damn tapes.
When Hunter Biden was convicted on federal gun charges, the pre-packaged narrative was that this was a good day for the rule of law and that the Biden Department of Justice and this administration writ large is the embodiment of honoring that principle. They just issued a memo that their attorneys general are exempt from prosecution for contempt of Congress. Garland essentially said he could ignore subpoenas he didn’t like before this vote.
So, no one is above the law except the folks who could stop any investigation into the president.
Garland is withholding the Biden/Hur audio recording for *obviously* political reasons. His excuses make no sense. Yes, R’s want the tapes for politics, too, but that’s not a legal justification for the AG’s stonewall. We can draw conclusions about how bad the tape must be: pic.twitter.com/s5pWTRlOe7
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) June 12, 2024