The White House on Tuesday accused Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee of working “to harass and intimidate a citizen” after they scheduled a meeting to consider a contempt referral for President Biden’s ghostwriter.
The House Judiciary Committee plans to meet Thursday to draft a resolution to hold Mark Zwonitzer accountable for contempt of Congress after he failed to turn over audiotapes and notes from his interviews with Biden.
In a letter to Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Edward Siskel, counsel to the president, argues that Zwonitzer is not in a position to comply with the request because “there are significant Executive Branch interests at stake.”
“The Committee’s actions are an obvious example of the very use of the government as a weapon for the political purposes that you claim to condemn. Placing a citizen in your political crosshairs and threatening them with criminal prosecution simply because you refuse to engage with the Executive Branch is out of bounds,” Siskel wrote in a letter obtained by The Hill.
“If you were sincerely interested in examining the handling of classified information, you would engage with the Executive Branch, not a private citizen with no authority related to classified information.”
The committee did not respond to a request for comment.
Republicans asked for Zwonitzer’s materials after special counsel Robert Hur noted in his report documenting his investigation into Biden’s handling of classified records that the president appeared to have read passages from his own notebooks that referenced classified information.
“Based on the information in Special Counsel Hur’s report, President Biden’s assertion that he never shared confidential information with you appears to be false,” Jordan wrote in February when he initially requested the information.
Zwonitzer, through his lawyers, noted that he turned over the materials to the Department of Justice. Although he initially deleted recordings of his conversation with Biden, the department was able to recover them.
“The Department continues to have ownership, custody, and control of these files,” Zwonitzer’s lawyers wrote in a May letter, suggesting that the panel negotiate directly with the DOJ.
Zwonitzer’s lawyer noted the personal nature of most of the interviews and materials needed to prepare Biden’s memoir, adding that they would not serve any legitimate legislative purpose.
Siskel also noted the personal nature of the discussions, pointing to a court ruling regarding the effort to secure former President Trump’s taxes.
“The Supreme Court recently made clear that Congress’s attempts to obtain personal information from the sitting president raise ‘significant separation of powers issues,’” he wrote.
“Congressional demands for the President’s private information ‘implicate the relationship between the branches’ and ‘may be intended to harass the President.’”
Jordan’s interest in Zwonitzer comes after House Republicans voted to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland liable for contempt for failing to turn over audiotapes of Biden’s conversation with Hur.
Biden claimed executive privilege over the tapes, a detail the Justice Department determined protects Garland from prosecution.
Hur declined to prosecute Zwonizter in connection with his investigation, writing that “the evidence fails to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Zwonitzer intended to impede an investigation.”
Siskel noted that Republicans “went so far as to demand that Mr. Zwonitzer be criminally prosecuted, despite the Special Counsel… refusing such action after an investigation that lasted more than a year.”
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
