Congressional Republicans inched closer to holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt Tuesday as the House Oversight Committee dropped a scathing report against him.
Garland’s Justice Department bucked a February subpoena demanding audio recordings of former special counsel Robert Hur’s interviews with President Biden and ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer.
Now that they have released the 17-page report recommending Garland be held in contempt, the panel is planning to advance both the report and contempt resolution on Thursday.
“The Attorney General has further invoked no constitutional or legal privilege relieving his obligation to fully respond to the Committees’ subpoenas,” the report concluded.
“Garland’s willful refusal to comply with the Committees’ subpoenas constitutes contempt of Congress and warrants referral to the appropriate United States Attorney’s Office for prosecution as prescribed by law.”
Should the Committee prevail in their efforts, it will mark the first time a US attorney general has faced such an admonishment since Eric Holder, who was held in contempt of Congress in 2012 for refusing to cough up documents related to Operation Fast and Furious.
Given that the Justice Department itself is tasked with enforcing contempt of Congress charges, which can carry stiff penalties of up to $100,000 in fines and a year behind bars, Holder was never formally charged.
Last month, under Garland’s watch, the DOJ blew by the subpoena deadline without forking over the tapes arguing that the committee “already received the extraordinary accommodation of the transcripts.”
“To go further by producing the audio files would compound the likelihood that future prosecutors will be unable to secure this level of cooperation,” a DOJ official wrote to the panel last month.
“They might have a harder time obtaining consent to an interview at all.”
Republican investigators have been keen on obtaining the more than five hours of audio recorded from Biden’s conversations with Hur last fall to better ascertain his cognitive state and further study the president’s handling of classified documents.
Hur, a Trump-appointed US attorney for the District of Maryland, ultimately opted not to press charges against Biden over his handling of classified documents and revealed his findings in a 388-page bombshell report released in February.
His report noted that there was evidence that Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials,” but his team concluded there wasn’t enough to prove it “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
One factor Hur cited was concerns a jury could perceive Biden as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
“Special Counsel Hur’s report makes clear, despite its conclusion that criminal charges are not warranted, that President Biden willfully and unlawfully retained classified materials while he was a private citizen,” the Oversight report said.
Hur testified before the House Judiciary Committee to explain his findings in March.
The Post contacted the Justice Department for comment.
Former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro became the first former top administration official to face jail time due to a contempt of Congress charge. He began his four-month sentence in March.