DOJ won’t prosecute Garland for contempt, says refusal to provide audio wasn’t crime:
Attorney General Merrick Garland will not be prosecuted for contempt of Congress because his refusal to turn over audio of President Joe Biden’s interview in his classified documents case “did not constitute a crime,” the Justice Department said Friday.
In a letter to Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Justice Department official cited the agency’s “longstanding position and uniform practice” not to prosecute officials who don’t comply with subpoenas because of a president’s claim of executive privilege.
The Democratic president last month asserted executive privilege to block the release of the audio, which the White House says Republicans want only for political purposes. Republicans moved forward with the contempt effort anyway, voting Wednesday to punish Garland for refusing to provide the recording.
Assistant Attorney General Carlos Felipe Uriarte noted that the Justice Department under presidents of both political parities has declined to prosecute in similar circumstances when there has been a claim of executive privilege.
Accordingly, the department “will not bring the congressional contempt citation before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute the Attorney General,” Uriarte said in the letter to Johnson. The letter did not specify who in Justice Department made the decision.
Republicans were incensed when special counsel Robert Hur declined to prosecute Biden over his handling of classified documents and quickly opened an investigation.
Republican lawmakers - led by Reps. Jim Jordan and James Comer - sent a subpoena for audio of Hur’s interviews with Biden, but the Justice Department only turned over some of the records, leaving out audio of the interview with the president.
Republicans have accused the White House of suppressing the tape because they say the president is afraid to have voters hear it during an election year. --->READ MORE HERE
Speaker Johnson says House will go to court for Biden audio after Justice Dept. refused to prosecute:
Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday that the House will go to court to enforce the subpoena against Attorney General Merrick Garland for access to President Joe Biden’s special counsel audio interview, hours after the Justice Department refused to prosecute Republicans’ contempt of Congress charge.
“It is sadly predictable that the Biden Administration’s Justice Department will not prosecute Garland for defying congressional subpoenas even though the department aggressively prosecuted Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro for the same thing,” Johnson said in a statement. “This is yet another example of the two-tiered system of justice brought to us by the Biden Administration.”
In a letter to Johnson earlier Friday, a Justice Department official cited the agency’s “longstanding position and uniform practice” to not prosecute officials who don’t comply with subpoenas because of a president’s claim of executive privilege.
The Democratic president last month asserted executive privilege to block the release of the audio, which the White House says Republicans want only for political purposes. Republicans moved forward with the contempt effort anyway, voting Wednesday to punish Garland for refusing to provide the recording.
Assistant Attorney General Carlos Felipe Uriarte noted that the Justice Department under presidents of both political parties has declined to prosecute in similar circumstances when there has been a claim of executive privilege.
Accordingly, the department “will not bring the congressional contempt citation before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute the Attorney General,” Uriarte said in the letter to Johnson. The letter did not specify who in the Justice Department made the decision. --->READ MORE HERE
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