The House Judiciary Committee passed a resolution on Thursday to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for failing to disclose audio recordings of President Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur.
The full House must approve the resolution, which is largely symbolic, to officially hold Garland in contempt. Republicans maintain a narrow majority in the House to pass the resolution.
Garland would follow Eric Holder, Obama’s attorney general, and Bill Bar, Trump’s attorney general, to be held in contempt if the House passes the resolution.
Garland defied a final warning in April to comply with a subpoena for the recording of Biden’s interview with Hur despite several warnings and requests for the audio. Republicans demand the audio as a part of their effort to conduct their impeachment inquiry into Biden for his involvement in the Biden business.
Hur’s investigation of Biden, which concluded in February, found Biden “willfully” retained classified documents but declined to prosecute him, citing “insufficient evidence.” Hur characterized Biden in his report as “an elderly man with a poor memory.” The president experienced mental lapses and “poor memory” at least seven times during his interview with Hur, according to a transcript obtained by Breitbart News.
Moments before the committee met on Thursday to consider the contempt resolution, Biden asserted executive privilege to prevent the disclosure of the audio. The DOJ subsequently alleged Biden’s executive privilege prevents Congress from holding Garland in contempt of Congress.
Disclosing the audio “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,” Garland told reporters.
Republicans were undeterred.
“[We] will move forward with its markup of a resolution and report recommending to the House of Representatives that Attorney General Garland be held in contempt of Congress for defying a lawful subpoena,” House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) said in a statement. “The White House is asserting executive privilege over the recordings, but it has already waived privilege by releasing the transcript of the interview.”
The White House previously bragged about not asserting executive privilege over Hur’s probe into Biden for mishandling classified documents. White House spokesman Ian Sams touted not asserting executive privilege over the investigation, the House Judiciary Committee posted in a flashback on Thursday.
“He was transparent,” Sams told reporters. “He had nothing to hide.”
🚨FLASHBACK🚨
In February, White House spokesman Ian Sams bragged about Joe Biden not asserting executive privilege during Special Counsel Hur’s investigation.
“He had nothing to hide.”
Why is Biden hiding behind Executive Privilege now? pic.twitter.com/UyJlezliv1
— House Republicans (@HouseGOP) May 16, 2024
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said Biden’s executive order represented a double standard.
“Crooked Joe Biden and his feeble administration have irretrievably politicized the key constitutional tenet of executive privilege, denying it to their political opponents while aggressively trying to use it to run political cover for Crooked Joe,” Cheung said.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.