Attorney General Merrick Garland will push back Tuesday against lawmakers who have vowed to hold him in contempt, calling the effort “just the latest in a long line of attacks” on the Justice Department.
Garland is scheduled to appear before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, after it, along with the House Oversight Committee, voted last month to hold him in contempt — an effort left in limbo during the recess as he is not It’s unclear whether the Republican Party will be able to secure enough votes to pass the measure on the floor.
It’s a busy time for Garland to appear before some of the House’s biggest bomb throwers, though a Department of Justice (DOJ) spokesperson said the attorney general plans to “forcefully reject false narratives about Department of Justice officials.” and your job”.
Numerous Republicans have expressed their frustration with the DOJ over former President Trump’s conviction by a New York jury, despite the fact that the agency has no control over the prosecution at the state level. Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on Monday called for the elimination of federal funding for state prosecutors involved in “abusive ‘warfare’ tactics to target political opponents.”
Garland on Tuesday will call such claims a “conspiracy theory [that] it is an attack on the judicial process itself.”
And although Republicans already have a transcript of President Biden’s conversation with special counsel Robert Hur, lawmakers are sure to ask questions about the interview, as well as the decision not to turn over audio recordings of the conversation. They will also likely ask him about the DOJ investigations into Hunter Biden, who is on trial this week.
“Certain members of this Committee and the Oversight Committee are seeking contempt as a means of obtaining – without a legitimate purpose – confidential law enforcement information that could undermine the integrity of future investigations,” Garland will say, according to prepared comments obtained by A hill.
“I see contempt as a serious matter. But I will not jeopardize the ability of our prosecutors and agents to do their jobs effectively in future investigations. I will not be intimidated. And the Justice Department will not be intimidated. We will continue to do our work free from political influence. And we will not give up defending our democracy.”
President Biden claimed executive privilege over the audio on the eve of committee meetings to vote on whether to hold Garland in contempt — a detail that provides the attorney general with protection against the need to turn over the files.
The GOP’s interest in holding Garland in contempt comes, they say, as an offshoot of his impeachment investigation.
Both the Judiciary and the House Oversight Committee sent subpoenas to Garland asking a series of questions that sought to link the conversation about President Biden’s investigation of confidential documents to his own investigation into influence peddling.
Republicans argue they need the audio for a broader investigation into whether Biden was involved in his family’s business. They say it could clarify whether Biden took steps to limit the prosecution of his son or whether he sought to limit the scope of the questions he was asked.
But the suggestions are a far cry from Hur’s work, and the transcript of both days’ interviews makes it clear that these topics were not discussed.
“Nothing in the interview transcripts the department has already produced speaks to or supports the committees’ speculations on this point, and nothing in the audio archive of the same conversations would either,” Carlos Uriarte, head of the DOJ’s office of legislative affairs, has repeatedly written. to the two committee chairs in an 11-page letter in April.
Democrats accused Republicans of wanting the audio to be used in campaign commercials.
The Republicans’ link between Hur’s investigation and their own follows the arrest of a former FBI informant who accused Biden of accepting a bribe, an allegation underlying the GOP investigation. The informant has since been accused of fabricating the allegation.
When lawmakers met last month to vote on Garland’s contempt resolution, the House Oversight hearing was overshadowed by conflicts among members after it was rescheduled to allow Republicans to attend Trump’s trial. Instead, lawmakers traded insults about each other’s appearance after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) mocked another lawmaker’s false eyelashes.
Garland on Tuesday also plans to address “threats to defund specific Department investigations” — a group he notes includes special counsel Jack Smith.
Without naming names or agreeing with the committee’s investigations into line agents, Garland also notes an increase in the number of individual career agents being singled out “just for doing their job.”
“This comes at a time when baseless and extremely dangerous falsehoods are being spread about the FBI’s law enforcement operations. And this comes at a time when we are seeing heinous threats of violence directed at career public servants at the Department of Justice,” he says in the comments.
“These repeated attacks on the Department of Justice are unprecedented and baseless. These attacks have not and will not influence our decision-making.”
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
