The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has decided not to pursue charges against Attorney General Merrick Garland for contempt of Congress, following the House of Representatives’ narrow vote to punish him for refusing to release audio tapes from an investigation into President Joe Biden.
The Republican-controlled House voted 216-207 on Wednesday to recommend that the DoJ, which Mr. Garland oversees, file criminal charges against America’s top law enforcement officer. This decision was prompted by Mr. Garland’s refusal to provide recorded interviews from a justice department probe into Mr. Biden’s handling of classified documents.
In a letter to Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on Friday, a senior DoJ official stated that Mr. Garland’s actions “do not constitute a crime.” Mr. Johnson described the decision as “sadly predictable.”
Carlos Felipe Uriarte, an assistant attorney general, explained that it is a “longstanding position” of the department not to bring charges in cases where the president has decided to withhold the requested material under executive privilege. This legal doctrine allows presidents to withhold executive branch information from the other two branches of the US government.
“Accordingly, the Department will not bring the congressional contempt citation before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute the Attorney General,” Mr. Uriarte wrote.
House Speaker Johnson expressed his intention to take the matter to federal court to compel the attorney general to release the audio. He criticized the DoJ’s decision as “another example of the two-tiered system of justice brought to us by the Biden Administration.” He pointed to the cases of former Trump aides Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, who cited executive privilege in defying congressional subpoenas but were found in contempt of Congress, criminally prosecuted, and sentenced to prison terms.
Last month, Mr. Biden invoked executive privilege to prevent congressional Republicans from accessing tapes of his interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur, who was investigating his retention of classified documents after serving as vice president. Although Mr. Biden turned in the documents once discovered, the DoJ special counsel stated that he should not be charged, as jurors would likely view him as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
The White House argued that Republicans had no legitimate need for the five hours of audio, since a transcript had already been released. They claimed Republicans wanted to use the audio for campaign attack ads against Mr. Biden as he seeks re-election this November. At 81 years old, Mr. Biden’s age is seen by opponents as a key political vulnerability, while his Republican challenger, Donald Trump, recently turned 78.
Trump is facing a federal prosecution for retaining documents that were supposed to be handed over to government archivists after he left office, and allegedly attempting to obstruct justice by hiding the classified memos after being ordered to submit them.
In recent years, two other attorneys general, Eric Holder (a Democrat) and Bill Barr (a Republican), were held in contempt of Congress. In both cases, the DoJ declined to press charges, issuing similar letters to that received by Mr. Garland.
