House GOP votes to hold Attorney General Garland in contempt over Biden audio recordings
CNN
House Republicans voted Wednesday to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over the audio recordings of President Joe Biden’s interviews with former special counsel Robert Hur, who investigated Biden’s handling of classified material and declined to bring charges.
House Republicans voted Wednesday to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over the audio recordings of President Joe Biden’s interviews with former special counsel Robert Hur, who investigated Biden’s handling of classified material and declined to bring charges. The vote marks a major escalation in a monthslong dispute over the recordings between House Republicans and the executive branch that came after Biden asserted executive privilege over the files. The vote was 216 to 207 with one Republican – Rep. Dave Joyce of Ohio – voting against it. Ahead of the vote, Garland released an op-ed declaring that he would not be intimidated by “baseless, personal and dangerous” attacks, echoing the defiant stance he had while being grilled by Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month. Now that the contempt resolution against Garland has succeeded, House Speaker Mike Johnson will certify the report to the United States attorney for the District of Columbia. Under law, this certification then requires the US attorney to “bring the matter before the grand jury for its action,” but the Justice Department will also make its own determinations for prosecuting. Democrats have used the process several times as they ran into uncooperative allies and former aides to Trump during their investigation into the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. The Department of Justice ultimately did not pursue charges against Trump aide Dan Scavino and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. But federal prosecutors did take two Trump allies, Stephen Bannon and former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro to trial on the criminal contempt charges. Holding the nation’s top law enforcement officer in contempt builds on Republican allegations that the Justice Department has been weaponized against conservatives, claims that have been particularly ratcheted up in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s conviction in New York for falsifying business records.
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