The contempt of Congress proceedings against AG Garland have passed the first phase in the House while Joe Biden frantically moved to block House Republicans from accessing the audio of his interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur in the classified documents scandal.
Thursday brought a brewing political battle to the Republican-led House as Republicans voted to proceed with holding Attorney General (AG) Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress over his refusal to turn in the audio recording of Biden’s interview with Department of Justice (DOJ) Special Counsel Robert Hur.
Hours before the House committees were scheduled to convene the contempt hearing against Garland, the White House announced that Biden has asserted executive privilege over the audio of his interview with Special Counsel Hur. House Republicans had been provided with the transcript of the audio but they wanted to check out the actual tapes to verify nothing was left out and the details of the interview in comparison with the Special Counsel report which recommended no criminal charges against Biden because it saw Biden as a “sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.”
Biden’s move to claim executive privilege was a last-minute effort to shield Garland from contempt proceedings. The Epoch Times reported that soon after the executive privilege assertion by Biden, Assistant Attorney General Carlos Felipe Uriarte wrote to the Republican leaders asking them not to continue with the contempt proceedings. Uriarte’s letter said:
“It is the longstanding position of the executive branch held by administrations of both parties that an official who asserts the president’s claim of executive privilege cannot be held in contempt of Congress.”
On Thursday, both the House Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight Committee voted to hold AG Garland in contempt of Congress. The House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer rejected Biden’s assertion of executive privilege on the grounds that the audio is not classified material because the transcript is already out. He stated that Biden’s attempt to withhold the tapes when the transcript is out means there is something he is hiding.
The hearing saw moments when sparks flew off the mics of some House members from opposite benches across the aisle. One particular heated exchange between Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and Democrat Congresswomen Jasmine Crockett and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) instantly became news fodder and social media sensation. It started when
Crockett tried to get at Greene by asking if she knew what the hearing was about. As Greene snapped back at Crockett and mocked her cosmetics, AOC erupted into shouting and engaged Greene in a short match of insult exchange.
The committees’ resolutions to hold Garland in contempt are now set to go to the House for a full House vote and, as Forbes wrote, it will need House Speaker Mike Johnson to introduce the resolutions on the House floor. But since the DOJ works for Democrats and has actively and openly sided with Biden, it is not likely that it would follow any congressional criminal referral against Garland and charge him with contempt.
The Epoch Times noted that House Republicans are not the only ones asking for the audio of Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Hur:
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for the recordings filed by media outlets and government watchdog groups have also gone unanswered, prompting a lawsuit.