The House Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for failing to turn over audio recordings of special counsel Robert K. Hur‘s interviews with President Biden over his mishandling of classified documents.
The GOP-led panel cited Mr. Garland with contempt in an 18-15 vote hours after the president sought to shield his attorney general from the charge by asserting executive privilege over the audio tapes, which were recorded by Mr. Hur during his two-day interview with Mr. Biden in October.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican said the last-minute executive privilege assertion by the president underscores the “unique perspective” the recordings offer and that the panel seeks to review to determine whether Mr. Biden received favorable treatment by his Justice Department.
“This latest invocation does not change the fact that the attorney general has not complied with our subpoena,” Mr. Jordan said.
The measure now moves to a vote before the GOP-led House. If the House passes it, the contempt resolution will be referred to the Justice Department.
Individuals prosecuted and convicted of a contempt citation face a fine of up to $100,000 and imprisonment “for not less than one month nor more than 12 months.” But Mr. Garland, who oversees the department, is likely to ignore it.
Mr. Garland has refused to provide Congress the audio recording of Mr. Hur‘s interview with Mr. Biden regarding his mishandling of classified documents he took while vice president and dating back to his time as a senator.
He’s also denied House lawmakers the audio recordings of Mr. Hur‘s interview with Mark Zwonitzer, the ghostwriter for Mr. Biden‘s 2017 memoir, “Promise Me, Dad.”
The Justice Department released redacted transcripts of the Hur interviews earlier this year but lawmakers say they need the audio tapes to determine if prosecutors are delivering impartial justice.
Mr. Biden‘s November opponent, former President Donald Trump, is facing dozens of charges in Florida by special counsel Jack Smith over his own stash of classified documents he took from the White House in January 2017 and stored at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Mr. Biden received an $8 million advance for his memoir, and Mr. Hur cited it as one of the president’s motivations for taking the classified documents.
“We have motive. We have the elements of the crime. But he doesn’t get charged and yet President Trump does,” Mr. Jordan said. “Is this the impartial administration of justice by the Justice Department? That’s our objective. That’s our goal. And the best way to figure all that out is to get all the evidence.”
Mr. Jordan said lawmakers need the audio tapes because the transcript of the interviews turned over by Mr Hur “are not sufficient evidence of the state of the president’s memory, frankly because the White House has a track record of altering the transcripts.”
The battle over the tapes comes as Mr. Biden, 81, faces low approval ratings and poll numbers that show voters question whether he’s too old for a second term. Mr. Hur reported that during his interviews with Mr. Biden, he suffered several memory lapses and forgot when his son, Beau Biden, died from brain cancer.
Democrats seeking to shield Mr. Biden from the potentially embarrassing audio said the Hur transcripts are sufficient and accused Republicans of seeking the audio tapes to distort them for political purposes.
“They want the video for Donald Trump’s campaign commercials,” Rep. Adam Schiff, California Democrat, said.
Hours ahead of the contempt vote, Justice Department lawyers wrote to Mr. Jordan and Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, Kentucky Republican, informing them of the executive privilege assertion.
In the letter, Justice Department lawyers said releasing the recordings would “damage future law enforcement efforts and that the committee’s continued demands raise serious separation of powers concerns.”
White House Counsel Ed Siskel wrote a separate letter to House lawmakers Thursday, slamming the effort to obtain the recordings as a politically motivated effort to embarrass Mr. Biden. He said Republicans didn’t have a legitimate purpose for the materials beyond to “chop them up, distort them, and use them for partisan political purposes.”
Republicans said executive privilege was waived by the president when the transcripts were released and the tapes are needed by Congress to conduct legitimate oversight into Mr. Biden‘s removal and improper storage of classified documents while he was vice president and dating back to his time as a senator.
Mr. Hur, who has since resigned from the Justice Department, cited the audio recordings in his decision not to charge Mr. Biden over his mishandling of classified documents. The president, Mr. Hur wrote in a final report, came across as “a sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.”
The audio tapes, Republican lawmakers said, will help lawmakers determine if Mr. Hur‘s assessment of the president is accurate and if he deserved to escape criminal charges.
“If our commander in chief is so incompetent that he cannot stand trial and he’s not fit to stand trial, then he’s too incompetent, for God’s sake, to be the leader of the most powerful nation on the face of the earth,” Rep. Jeff Van Drew, New Jersey Republican, said. “If President Biden is competent, and special counsel Hur‘s assessment was incorrect, then President Biden should face a jury for his crimes of mishandling classified materials.”
Mr. Biden shared classified information with Mr. Zwonitzer, according to Mr. Hur’s report, and Mr. Zwonitzer deleted some of his audio recordings of his interviews with Mr. Biden when he learned of Mr. Hur‘s appointment in the case.
Mr. Hur testified in March that Mr. Biden revealed classified documents about the war in Afghanistan to Mr. Zwonitzer in February 2017 and “read classified information out loud” to him.
The author did not hold a security clearance.
Mr. Hur‘s testimony undermined Mr. Biden‘s argument that he did not willfully take or share boxes of classified information found in his Washington office and at his home in Wilmington, Delaware. Some of the material was left in a pile in his garage.
Mr. Biden‘s book reached No. 1 on The New York Times bestseller list.