The Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) will not prosecute Attorney General Merrick Garland for contempt of Congress. In a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson released late on Friday, the DOJ, overseen by the Attorney General, argued that the House Republican‘s contempt resolution does not preempt Joe Biden‘s assertion of executive privilege regarding audio records of two interviews he sat for with special counsel Robert Hur. Garland was held in contempt for refusing to furnish the recordings to Congress.
“The longstanding position of the Department is that we will not prosecute an official for contempt of Congress for declining to provide subpoenaed information subject to a presidential assertion of executive privilege,” the letter, authored by Assistant Attorney General Carlos Felipe Uriarte reads. He adds: “Across administrations of both political parties, we have consistently adhered to the position that ‘the contempt of Congress statute was not intended to apply and could not constitutionally be applied to an Executive Branch official who asserts the President’s claim of executive privilege.'”
WHAT ABOUT BANNON & NAVARRO?
Despite Uriarte’s claim, this precedent was not extended to Dr. Peter Navarro or Stephen K. Bannon, both sentenced to jail time due to a congressional contempt charge made by the hyper-partisan January 6th committee, which fabricated information and mass-deleted evidence. Meanwhile, Garland has publicly and dubiously argued that “Releasing the audio would chill cooperation with the department in future investigations, and it could influence witnesses’ answers if they thought the audio of their law enforcement interviews would be broadcast to Congress and the public.”
The DOJ letter concludes: “…the Department has determined that the responses by Attorney General Garland to the subpoenas issued by the Committees did not constitute a crime, and accordingly… will not bring the congressional contempt citation before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute the Attorney General.”
