The Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a determination on Friday that Attorney General Merrick Garland committed no crime by failing to meet the demands of House Republicans, who subpoenaed the audio of President Biden’s conversation with Special Counsel Robert Hur.
The determination is in line with a Wednesday memo from the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel that said Biden’s claim of executive privilege over the tapes protected Garland from prosecution. That memo surfaced publicly hours before all but one House Republican approved a resolution to hold Garland accountable for contempt of Congress, an effort to begin proceedings against the attorney general.
However, such resolutions act as a referral to the Department of Justice, which must then determine whether there are grounds for criminal charges – in this case, with the DOJ vehemently rejecting the request in a three-page letter.
The DOJ, under administrations of both parties, has repeatedly refused to prosecute several attorneys general or other officials who failed to turn over materials to Congress, the department noted in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
“Consistent with this long-standing position and uniform practice, the Department has determined that Attorney General Garland’s responses to subpoenas issued by the Committees did not constitute a crime and therefore the Department will not present the contempt of Congress citation to a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute the Attorney General,” Carlos Uriarte, DOJ’s head of legislative affairs, wrote in the letter.
Republicans already have a transcript of the conversation, and although they have publicly sought to link the tapes to their impeachment investigation, the transcript makes clear that no items they marked as important to the investigation were discussed.
Garland, after Wednesday’s vote, accused Republicans of using contempt as a partisan tool.
“It is deeply disappointing that this House of Representatives has turned a serious parliamentary authority into a partisan weapon. Today’s vote disregards the constitutional separation of powers, the Justice Department’s need to protect its investigations, and the substantial amount of information we provide to the Committees,” he said.
The refusal will likely trigger additional action by House Republicans.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Florida) said she would introduce a privileged motion to accept a previously introduced inherent contempt resolution — legislation that, if passed, would give the House sergeant-at-arms the green light to bring Garland to the House to force him turning over subpoenaed items.
“This hadn’t been done since the early 1900s and was actually quite common practice when people openly ignored and disrespected the authority of the House. [of] Representatives. So we hope that Garland does the right thing and that the DOJ does the right thing,” she told The Hill before Wednesday’s vote.
The DOJ on Friday emphasized the numerous documents turned over in response to the subpoena, including the transcript and two confidential documents. They noted that Hur also testified for hours about his investigation.
Before the vote, Republicans suggested that because Biden had shared the transcript, he had little reason to withhold the audio.
“The President has waived any executive privilege over these audio recordings by releasing to the public a transcript of the entire interview,” House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said during a House Committee meeting. House Rules Tuesday.
But the 57-page memo from the department’s Office of Legal Counsel rejected that argument.
“Because the committees have the transcripts of the special counsel’s interviews, the needs that the committees articulated for the recordings are clearly insufficient to overcome a claim of privilege based on these important separation of powers concerns,” according to the memo.
“The audio recording will not reveal any information relevant to the committees’ stated needs that is not available in the transcripts.”
Garland cited Justice Department concerns about refusing to turn over the documents, arguing that doing so could diminish authorities’ ability to gain cooperation from those who may be hesitant to share their conversations with lawmakers. And in a separate case of outside groups seeking the audio, the Justice Department argued that the files could be manipulated.
Republicans, in turn, argued that the audio files — far more than the transcripts themselves — would clarify Hur’s comments about Biden’s memory and could help voters assess the president’s mental acuity.
Some members of the Republican Party have also raised suspicions that the transcript may be inaccurate, but the Justice Department has refuted that claim in its litigation with outside groups, certifying that the transcript matches the conversation word for word, with “ums” and words of fillers removed, as well as repeated words like “I”.
Updated at 3:55 pm EDT
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
