The House Judiciary Committee passed a resolution on Thursday to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for not disclosing audio recordings of President Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur. The full House must approve the resolution, which is mainly symbolic, to officially hold Garland in contempt. Republicans, who hold a narrow majority in the House, are expected to pass the resolution.
If the House approves the resolution, Garland would join Eric Holder and Bill Barr as the only attorneys general to be held in contempt. Garland had defied warnings and requests to comply with a subpoena for the recordings of Biden’s interview with Hur as part of an impeachment inquiry into Biden’s involvement in the Biden business.
Hur’s investigation into Biden had concluded in February, finding that Biden had retained classified documents but was not prosecuted due to insufficient evidence. Moments before the committee met to consider the contempt resolution, Biden invoked executive privilege to prevent the disclosure of the audio recordings. The Department of Justice argued that executive privilege prevented Congress from holding Garland in contempt.
Despite the objections raised, Republicans were determined to move forward with the resolution. They argued that Biden had waived executive privilege by releasing the transcript of the interview and questioned why he was now hiding behind executive privilege.
The debate over executive privilege and the refusal to disclose the recordings has sparked criticism from Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung, who called it a double standard. The issue has become a political point of contention, with accusations of politicizing executive privilege.
