House Republicans on Wednesday afternoon passed a resolution to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over audio of President Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur on his handling of classified documents.
The final vote was 216 to 207. Rep. David Joyce of Ohio was the only Republican who voted against the contempt resolution.
Speaker Mike Johnson called the outcome “a significant step in maintaining the integrity of our oversight processes and responsibilities.”
“It is up to Congress – not the Executive Branch – to determine what materials it needs to conduct its own investigations, and there are consequences for refusing to comply with lawful Congressional subpoenas,” Johnson said in a statement.
Garland, in response, said it was “deeply disappointing that this House of Representatives has turned a serious congressional 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 have provided to the Committees,” Garland said in a statement. “I will always stand up for this Department, its employees, and its vital mission to defend our democracy.”
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson speaks at a press conference following a House Republican conference meeting at the U.S. Capitol on June 12, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
While the Department of Justice has made a transcript of Hur’s interview with Biden available to the GOP-led committees, House Republicans argue the audio tapes are necessary to their stalled impeachment investigation into the president.
“The Committees need the audio tapes to verify the accuracy of the written transcripts given this White House has been known to heavily edit the President’s statements,” Johnson said. “This is a simple matter — we have the transcript, and we need the audio.”
The contempt resolution directs the House speaker to refer the case to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia for possible criminal prosecution.
Before the House Judiciary Committee last week, Garland continued to defend his decision to not turn over audio tapes of the interview, over which President Biden assert executive privilege.
“I will not be intimidated. And the Justice Department will not be intimidated. We will continue to do our jobs free from political influence. And we will not back down from defending our democracy,” Garland said at the hearing.
Attorney General Merrick Garland testifies during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Department of Justice, June 4, 2024, on Capitol Hill.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Democrats have also come to Garland’s defense, describing the GOP push to hold him in contempt a politically-motivated endeavor.
“This isn’t really about a policy disagreement with the DOJ, this is about feeding the MAGA base after 18 months of investigations that have produced failure after failure,” Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said in testimony Tuesday before the House Rules Committee.
Joyce, the sole Republican to vote against the resolution, also suggested it was a partisan act.
“As a former prosecutor, I cannot in good conscience support a resolution that would further politicize our judicial system to score political points,” Joyce said. “The American people expect Congress to work for them, solve policy problems, and prioritize good governance. Enough is enough.”
In the past, Congress has held Cabinet officials in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a House subpoena, including Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in 2019 and then-Attorney General Eric Holder in 2012.
Congress held Peter Navarro, a former top trade adviser in the Trump administration, in contempt of Congress in 2022 for defying records and testimony to the now defunct House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Navarro was recently sentenced to four months behind bars.
Steve Bannon, a Trump ally who was also held in contempt of Congress in 2022 for not complying with the Jan. 6 select committee, has been ordered to report to jail on July 1.
House Republicans voted on Thursday to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for his refusal to provide audio recordings of President Joe Biden’s interviews with the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th Capitol riot.
The committee had requested the recordings as part of their investigation into the events leading up to and following the attack on the Capitol. However, Garland cited executive privilege in his refusal to hand over the audio, arguing that the recordings were protected under the confidentiality of presidential communications.
House Republicans, led by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, argued that Garland’s refusal to provide the recordings was obstructing the committee’s investigation and preventing them from getting a full picture of what transpired on that fateful day. They also accused Garland of protecting Biden and shielding him from accountability.
The vote to hold Garland in contempt passed along party lines, with Republicans accusing Democrats of trying to shield Biden from scrutiny and protect him from any potential fallout from the investigation. Democrats, on the other hand, argued that the request for the recordings was overly broad and that Garland was well within his rights to refuse to hand them over.
This latest development is just one in a series of clashes between House Republicans and the Biden administration over the handling of the January 6th investigation. The committee has faced numerous roadblocks in its efforts to uncover the truth about what happened that day, with Republicans accusing Democrats of politicizing the investigation and using it as a tool to attack their political opponents.
As the investigation continues, it remains to be seen how this latest showdown between House Republicans and Attorney General Garland will impact the committee’s ability to uncover the truth about the events of January 6th and hold those responsible for the attack accountable.
