June 12, 2024
The House has now recommended that Merrick Garland the Attorney General of the United States be held in contempt of Congress for not turning over the audio recordings of the deposition of President Biden …you remember – that’s where he was described as a “well meaning elderly man with a poor memory.”
This comes after the House voted — basically along party lines. Final vote – 216 to 207. All Republicans voted yes. All Democrats voted no, one Republican, Representative Dave Joyce of Ohio joined the Democrats and voted no. 8 House members did not vote.
So now what? Well this contempt charge will be referred to the US Attorney for the District of Columbia – which is overseen by the Justice Department. Yes– the same department that Garland heads up. Then it’ll be up to the Justice Department to decide whether or not to prosecute. Spoiler alert – it is highly unlikely that the Justice Department is going to move forward with the prosecution of Merrick Garland. Why? Well there’s a whole executive privilege issue which I’m going to talk about in a second – but also because this has happened before. The House voted to hold both — Eric Holder the attorney general under former President Obama and Bill Barr the attorney general under former President Trump in contempt of congress. The Justice Department decided not to move forward with prosecuting either of them.
So why is this happening? This comes after months of back and forth between House Republicans and the Justice Department. You’ll remember President Biden was interviewed by special counsel Robert Hur over the classified documents found at his house and his private office. The special counsel released a report detailing his reasons for not prosecuting Biden over those documents. The report was made public and so was the transcript of that interview with Biden which happened over two days. In his report, special counsel Hur said president Biden came across as a “well meaning elderly man with a poor memory.”
After releasing Hur’s report, several other documents and the actual transcript of the interview with Biden, the white house decided to exert executive privilege over the audio recording of the interview. Republicans were pissed. They say they want that audio. They say they need it to ensure that the transcript matches what actually happened. Garland said no. He said his hands were tied because of the executive privilege. So – because he has refused, congress today held him in contempt. Executive privilege gives presidents the right to keep information from the courts, congress and the public to protect the confidentiality of decision-making, though it can be challenged in court. But both Democrat and Republican administrations for decades have abided by the long-held position that officials who are enforcing a president’s claim of executive privilege can’t be prosecuted for contempt of congress.
The democrats say the only reason why Republicans want the audio of Biden is to cherry pick parts of it to use it in political ads. And the Department of Justice says releasing tapes like this will dissuade witnesses from cooperating with investigations in the future and AG Garland says this is a “baseless, personal and dangerous” attack on the Justice Department.
