The Judiciary and Oversight Committees will discuss the option in response to Merrick B. Garland’s refusal to turn over audio of a special counsel’s interview with President Biden.
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The Justice Department has chosen, as a matter of policy since the Reagan years, not to prosecute attorneys general subject to similar resolutions.
House Republicans are threatening to hold Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over audio of President Biden’s interview with a special counsel investigating his handling of government documents.
On Thursday, the Judiciary and Oversight committees — run by allies of Mr. Trump — will hold sessions on Mr. Garland after he rejected their subpoenas for the recordings. Transcripts of the discussions, which took place between Mr. Biden and the special counsel Robert K. Hur, have already been made public after Mr. Hur concluded that there was insufficient evidence to charge Mr. Biden with a crime.
The contempt resolution would have to go to the full House for a vote. Approval is not certain given Republicans’ narrow majority and intraparty divisions, congressional aides said.
Even if the measure passed, it would be little more than a symbolic gesture; the Biden administration would almost certainly decline to prosecute. The Justice Department opted not to pursue charges against two of Mr. Garland’s predecessors when they were held in contempt: Eric H. Holder Jr., a Democrat, in 2012 and William P. Barr, a Republican, in 2020.
The move is part of a broader effort by Republican lawmakers such as Jim Jordan of Ohio, who leads the Judiciary Committee, and James R. Comer of Kentucky, who leads the oversight panel, to train their sights on Biden administration officials after failing to impeach Mr. Biden on behalf of Mr. Trump, who has been impeached twice and indicted four times.
If they succeed in getting Mr. Garland to release the recording, which is highly unlikely, it could provide damaging evidence of Mr. Hur’s characterization of the president as an “elderly man with a poor memory” and provide valuable fodder for Mr. Trump’s campaign.
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Source: nytimes.com
