Monday, 18 November 2024

UPDATE: AG Merrick Garland Will NOT Face Prosecution By Justice Department After Contempt Of Congress Vote

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The Department of Justice will not prosecute Attorney General Merrick Garland after the House of Representatives voted to hold him in contempt of Congress.

JUST IN: House Votes To Hold Attorney General Merrick Garland In Contempt Of Congress

Garland defied subpoenas from the House Judiciary and Oversight committees demanding he turn over audio recordings from Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur.

Per CBS News:

Carlos Uriarte, assistant attorney general, told House Speaker Mike Johnson in a letter that it is the Justice Department's longstanding policy not to bring contempt charges against an official who declined to turn over subpoenaed information subject to a president's assertion of executive privilege.

Mr. Biden invoked executive privilege over the audiotapes of his interviews with Hur, as well as an interview by his ghostwriter, and directed Garland not to release the materials sought by the House Judiciary and Oversight and Accountability Committees. Republicans on the panel had sought the recordings as part of their impeachment inquiry into the president.

"Consistent with this longstanding position and uniform practice, the Department has determined that the responses by Attorney General Garland to the subpoenas issued by the Committees did not constitute a crime, and accordingly the Department will not bring the congressional contempt citation before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute the Attorney General," Uriarte, who leads the Justice Department's Office of Legislative Affairs, wrote.

"The House disagrees with the assertions in the letter from the Department of Justice, and as Speaker, I will be certifying the contempt reports to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. We will also move to enforce the subpoena of Attorney General Garland in federal court," House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said.

"It is sadly predictable that the Biden Administration’s Justice Department will not prosecute Garland for defying congressional subpoenas even though the department aggressively prosecuted Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro for the same thing. This is yet another example of the two-tiered system of justice brought to us by the Biden Administration," he added.

CNN reports:

Republican lawmakers have argued that access to the tapes would provide more information, transparency and oversight around the investigation into a sitting US president.

On Wednesday, every Republican in the House except one – Rep. Dave Joyce of Ohio – voted to hold Garland in contempt of Congress.

While the Justice Department has defended its decision to not turn over the audio recordings of Biden’s interviews with Hur and his team – claiming the decision was made in part to protect this and future investigations – the Justice Department did make public transcripts of those interviews.

In describing the interviews, Hur said that Biden presented himself “as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

At the time, Biden ridiculed Hur’s report and questions about his memory.

“Their task was to make a decision over whether to move forward with charges in this case,” Biden said during a press conference following the report, noting that Hur did not move forward with charges. “For any extraneous commentary they don’t know what they’re talking about. It has not place in this report.”


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