Image source, Getty Images
- author, Max Matza
- role, BBC News
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The Department of Justice (DOJ) has declined to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress after the House narrowly passed a bill to punish him for refusing to turn over audio tapes of the investigation into President Joe Biden.
The Republican-controlled House voted 216-207 on Wednesday to recommend that the Justice Department, which Garland oversees, bring criminal charges against the nation’s top law enforcement officer.
The move comes after Garland refused to turn over recorded interviews to Republican lawmakers in a Justice Department investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents.
A senior Justice Department official said in a letter Friday to House Republican Speaker Mike Johnson that the department had determined that Garland’s conduct “did not constitute a crime.” Johnson called the move “unfortunately but expected.”
Assistant Attorney General Carlos Felipe Uriarte said it is the Justice Department’s “long-standing position” not to prosecute if the president decides to use executive privilege to suppress requested documents.
Executive privilege is a legal doctrine that gives the president the right to conceal executive branch information from the other two branches of the U.S. government.
“Accordingly, the Department of Justice will not present a contempt of Congress indictment to a grand jury or take any steps to indict the Attorney General,” Uriarte wrote.
The House Speaker said he plans to go to federal court to force the attorney general to turn over the audio.
Johnson called the Justice Department’s decision “another example of the two-tiered justice system that the Biden administration has brought about.”
He cited the examples of former Trump aides Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, who tried to ignore congressional subpoenas and assert executive privilege, and were charged with contempt of Congress and sentenced to prison.
Last month, Biden used executive privilege to block Republican lawmakers from viewing audio recordings of his meetings with special counsel Robert Hur, who was investigating whether Biden kept classified documents after his time as vice president.
Biden turned the documents over as soon as they were discovered. A special Justice Department counsel questioning the Democratic US president said that although Biden had kept the files, he should not be indicted because a jury would likely view him as “an old man with good intentions but a fragile memory.”
The White House said Republicans had no legitimate need to access the five hours of audio because the transcripts were already public and argued they wanted to use it in campaign ads against Biden, who is seeking a second term as president in November.
The oldest US president, at 81, Biden’s age is seen as a major political weakness for his opponents: his Republican rival Donald Trump just turned 78.
President Trump is facing federal charges for keeping documents that he was supposed to turn over to a government archivist after he left office.
He allegedly attempted to obstruct justice by concealing classified memos after receiving a subpoena.
Two other attorneys general have also been charged with contempt of Congress in recent years.
In both cases, Democrat Eric Holder and Republican Bill Barr received similar letters from the Justice Department informing them that prosecutors were declining to bring charges.
