A pair of Republican-led House committees voted on Thursday to advance contempt proceedings against Attorney General Merrick Garland for his refusal to turn over audio recordings of President Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur.
The House Oversight and Judiciary committees are scheduled to begin the process of holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with those subpoenas on Thursday.
The White House pointed out that the Department of Justice has already provided the transcripts of the special counsel’s interviews with Biden and his ghostwriter, and has complied with the other aspects of the initial subpoena from Republicans.
“With the information you now have, the Committees ought not proceed with contempt and should instead avoid unnecessary and unwarranted conflict,” Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legislative Affairs, Carlos Uriarte wrote.
Without the votes in their narrow majority or evidence of an impeachable offense, Republicans are now struggling with how to end their probe and are looking for ways to target other members of the Biden administration.
In their contempt reports, Republicans stated that the DOJ does not get to determine what information is useful to their investigation, and argued that the verbal nuances of an audio recording provide unique insight into a subject that are not reflected in a transcript.
Such pauses and inflections, Republicans claim, “can provide indications of a witness’s ability to recall events, or whether the individual is intentionally giving evasive or nonresponsive testimony to investigators.”
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The House Oversight and Judiciary committees are scheduled to begin the process of holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with those subpoenas on Thursday.
The White House pointed out that the Department of Justice has already provided the transcripts of the special counsel’s interviews with Biden and his ghostwriter, and has complied with the other aspects of the initial subpoena from Republicans.
“With the information you now have, the Committees ought not proceed with contempt and should instead avoid unnecessary and unwarranted conflict,” Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legislative Affairs, Carlos Uriarte wrote.
Without the votes in their narrow majority or evidence of an impeachable offense, Republicans are now struggling with how to end their probe and are looking for ways to target other members of the Biden administration.
In their contempt reports, Republicans stated that the DOJ does not get to determine what information is useful to their investigation, and argued that the verbal nuances of an audio recording provide unique insight into a subject that are not reflected in a transcript.
Such pauses and inflections, Republicans claim, “can provide indications of a witness’s ability to recall events, or whether the individual is intentionally giving evasive or nonresponsive testimony to investigators.”
The original article contains 718 words, the summary contains 205 words. Saved 71%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!