House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan argued Wednesday that the House was justified in voting to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress.
In February, Jordan and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer subpoenaed the DOJ for both the transcripts and audio recordings of special counsel Robert Hur’s interviews with President Joe Biden regarding his retention of classified materials from his time as vice president and a U.S. senator from Delaware.
Garland turned over the transcripts but refused to release the audio recordings, and last month Biden asserted executive privilege in the matter.
The House voted Wednesday 216 to 207 to hold the attorney general in contempt of Congress.
Last month, the attorney general told reporters, “We have gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure that the committees get responses to their legitimate requests, but this is not one.”
“To the contrary this is one that would harm our ability in the future to successfully pursue sensitive investigations,” he added.
Jordan said from the House floor ahead of the contempt vote, “The committees need the audio recordings to determine whether the Justice Department appropriately carried out justice by not prosecuting the president.”
“One former president’s being charged, Joe Biden is not being [charged], and we think we’re entitled — actually, we know we’re entitled — to all the evidence, and the best evidence,” he continued, in a reference to former President Donald Trump’s ongoing classified documents case.
Should Merrick Garland be held in contempt?
He noted the DOJ has already admitted in court documents to altering the transcripts, before they were released.
An official said that the department took out “filler words,” but asserted “the transcripts accurately capture the words spoken during the interview.”
🚨WHITE HOUSE ADMITS THEY DOCTORED BIDEN’S CRIMINAL TRANSCRIPT🚨
After being forced into Federal court by us, the White House admits they altered evidence to make Biden appear less incompetent
This case has been blown wide open https://t.co/lVHs5w4wPX pic.twitter.com/5xtIsPcVTV
— Oversight Project (@OversightPR) June 1, 2024
“Despite the committees’ best efforts, the department has continued to withhold the audio recordings of those interviews without providing any constitutional or legal basis to do so,” Jordan said.
On May 16, Biden asserted executive privilege over the audio recordings.
“It’s a move that the department said effectively shields Attorney General Merrick Garland from any criminal exposure,” ABC News reported at the time.
Jordan argued that Biden had a financial motive to retain the classified materials to put together an autobiography.
The lawmaker cited page 231 of Hur’s report, which states Biden “had strong motivations to do so and to ignore the rules for properly handling the classified information in his notebooks. He consulted the notebooks liberally during hours of discussions with his ghostwriter and viewed them as highly private and valued possessions with which he was unwilling to part.”
Jordan explained that Biden “had decided months before leaving office to write a book. A book for which he got paid $8 million.”
“But despite all this, special counsel Hur declined to prosecute — recommend prosecution — for President Biden, because Joe Biden is, quote, ‘a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,’’” Jordan said, reading from Hur’s report.
The chairman further spelled out in a social media post Wednesday why Congress needs the recordings.
“We cannot completely assess Special Counsel Hur’s recommendations and conclusions unless we have access to the audio recordings of the interview,” Jordan wrote.
“DOJ’s claims that law enforcement interests are at risk are especially weak here because the investigation is closed,” he also noted.
Why Congress needs the audio tapes of Robert Hur’s interview of President Biden:
1. The audio recording is the best evidence of what was said during the interview. Transcripts do not and cannot capture emphasis, inflection, intonation, nuance, pace, pauses, pitch, rhythm, tone,…
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) June 12, 2024
Politico reported, “It’s unlikely Garland will face charges — a decision that’s expected to be up to U.S. attorney Matthew Graves — particularly after Biden asserted executive privilege over the audio.”
Graves is the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. He is the lead prosecutor overseeing the Jan. 6 cases.
The DOJ did not accept the executive privilege claims made by former Trump White House aides Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon when they refused to comply with subpoenas issued by the Jan. 6 committee.
Graves’ office prosecuted both of them in Washington, D.C., and Navarro is currently serving a four-month jail sentence, while Bannon has been ordered to report to prison on July 1.
