U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during a House Judiciary Committee hearing titled “Oversight of the U.S. Department of Justice” in Washington, DC, the United States, on June 4, 2024.
Anna Roseladen | Reuters
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department confirmed Friday that, as expected, Attorney General Merrick Garland will not face charges after House Republicans elected voted to hold him in contempt of congress refuse to provide President Biden’s tapes That is protected by executive privilege.
“As you know, the President has asserted executive privilege and directed the Attorney General not to release materials subpoenaed by the House Judiciary Committee and the Oversight and Accountability Committee in connection with the investigation conducted by Special Counsel Robert K. Hule,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Card Gen. Los Felipe Uriarte wrote in a letter Friday to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana.
“The Department of Justice’s long-standing position is that we will not prosecute officials in contempt of Congress for refusing to provide information subpoenaed by the President’s assertion of executive privilege, as we explained in our letter to the committee on May 16, 2024,” Uriarte wrote. “Across the administration of both parties, we have consistently held the position that ‘contempt of Congress statutes are not intended to apply, and cannot constitutionally apply, to executive branch officials asserting the president’s executive privilege.'”
The letter noted that then-Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross were not indicted after being indicted in the House. vote them in contempt 2019. refuse to prosecute Former Trump White House officials Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino failed to cooperate with the committee’s Jan. 6 subpoena.
Congress already has a Transcript of interview between Biden and Hull, who investigated the president’s handling of classified documents. Hall declined to prosecute Biden, writing in the report that one reason for not pursuing the case was that Biden would be sympathetic to the jury because he could portray himself as “Old people with poor memoryHuer also said the evidence his team collected “does not prove Mr. Biden’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Garland wrote last month that providing the tapes to Congress “would create an unacceptable risk and undermine the department’s ability to conduct similar high-profile criminal investigations — especially one in which White House officials voluntarily cooperate with extremely important investigations.” He told reporters that releasing the tapes “will harm our ability to successfully conduct sensitive investigations in the future.”
wreath push back At a House Judiciary Committee hearing this month, Trump criticized Republican attacks on the judicial system and the Department of Justice, calling them “unprecedented” and “baseless.” He said the Justice Department “will not back down from defending democracy.
Johnson’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
About The Author
