{"id":2266359,"date":"2024-06-12T19:00:02","date_gmt":"2024-06-12T23:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/garland-blasts-republicans-for-using-contempt-as-partisan-weapon\/"},"modified":"2024-06-12T19:03:22","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T23:03:22","slug":"garland-blasts-republicans-for-using-contempt-as-partisan-weapon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/garland-blasts-republicans-for-using-contempt-as-partisan-weapon\/","title":{"rendered":"Garland criticizes Republicans for weaponizing contempt for partisan purposes"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgarland-blasts-republicans-for-using-contempt-as-partisan-weapon%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2266359&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Attorney General Merrick Garland expressed his disappointment after the House voted to hold him in contempt of Congress, almost entirely along party \u200clines. The vote resulted from Garland&#8217;s refusal to provide audio recordings of an\u200d interview \u200cbetween <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sidney-powell-is-an-american-legal-giant\/\" title=\"Sidney Powell Is an American Legal Giant\">special counsel<\/a> Robert Hur and President Joe Biden, after Biden invoked executive privilege.\u2062 Garland criticized this action as transforming a serious congressional authority into a partisan weapon, undermining\u2062 the constitutional\u2063 separation of powers and jeopardizing the Justice Department\u2019s ability \u2063to protect its investigations. The House, with\u200d a vote of \u200b216 to 207, \u200cpursued this measure after the DOJ and Congress had a prolonged standoff \u200bconcerning\u200b the DOJ&#8217;s refusal to turn over \u200dthe audio, though they did provide a transcript of the interview. The transcript revealed \u200dHur\u2019s assessment of Biden as an \u2062elderly man with memory issues, impacting his intent regarding mishandled classified material. The contempt proceedings escalated after bipartisan efforts faltered, highlighting the partisan\u2064 divide.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Attorney General <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/merrick-garland\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Merrick Garland<\/a> responded on Wednesday to the House voting almost entirely along party lines to hold him in contempt of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/congress\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Congress<\/a>, calling the move \u201cdeeply disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Garland said it transformed contempt, a rare move lawmakers use as a last resort to enforce subpoenas, from a \u201cserious congressional authority\u201d into a \u201cpartisan weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Republicans initiated contempt proceedings in response to Garland refusing to provide the audio recordings of an interview conducted last October between then-special counsel Robert Hur and President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n<p>Biden asserted executive privilege over the recordings last month as Republicans ramped up pressure to obtain them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday\u2019s vote disregards the constitutional separation of powers, the Justice Department\u2019s need to protect its investigations, and the substantial amount of information we have provided to the Committees,\u201d Garland said.<\/p>\n<p>The House voted on the contempt measure on a\u00a0narrow margin of 216 to 207. All but one Republican voted in favor of it, while all Democrats voted against it.<\/p>\n<p>It came after a monthslong standoff between the Department of Justice and two committees, the House Judiciary and Oversight committees, which have been leading an impeachment inquiry into Biden. The committees had asked the DOJ, as part of their inquiry, for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/faa-steps-up-scrutiny-of-boeing-with-calls-for-checks-on-another-737-model\/\" title=\"FAA increases scrutiny of Boeing, demands checks on additional 737 model\">numerous records related<\/a> to Hur\u2019s investigation into Biden\u2019s handling of classified material.<\/p>\n<p>As Garland emphasized in his statement, the DOJ complied almost entirely with the lawmakers\u2019 requests, including by providing a transcript of Biden\u2019s interview with Hur.<\/p>\n<p>However, the committees were dissatisfied with seeing only the transcript, which had confirmed Hur\u2019s findings that Biden, 81, had displayed memory lapses at certain points during the interview.<\/p>\n<p>Hur had used the interview as one of his justifications for declining to prosecute Biden for mishandling classified material from his time as vice president and senator. In a brutal assessment of Biden\u2019s mental acuity, the special counsel said the president came off as a \u201csympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory\u201d who could give a jury pause as to whether he acted with intent.<\/p>\n<p>The committees subpoenaed Garland for the audio of the interview, and at the direction of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/breaking-ag-barr-authorizes-federal-prosecutors-to-pursue-substantial-allegations-of-voting-irregularities-before-2020-election-is-certified\/\" title=\"BREAKING: AG Barr Authorizes Federal Prosecutors to Pursue \"Substantial Allegations\" of Voting Irregularities Before 2020 Election is Certified\">attorney general<\/a>, Biden <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/3006125\/biden-asserts-executive-privilege-hur-tapes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">responded<\/a> by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lefty-professor-demanding-justice-thomas-recuse-over-wifes-texts-accidentally-explains-why-he-shouldnt\/\" title=\"Lefty Professor Demanding Justice Thomas Recuse Over Wife\u2019s Texts Accidentally Explains Why He Shouldn\u2019t\">asserting executive privilege<\/a> over it, which effectively protected it from Congress.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans escalated matters by carrying out the contempt proceedings. Garland on Wednesday became the fourth Cabinet member in history to be held in contempt, after former Attorneys General Eric Holder and Bill Barr and former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross also received such condemnations.<\/p>\n<p>When a House votes to refer a person to the DOJ for contempt of Congress, the department, and specifically the U.S. attorney\u2019s office in Washington, D.C., has discretion over whether to act on the referral and initiate prosecution.<\/p>\n<p>Garland\u2019s contempt referral will hit a dead end in the DOJ, which indicated in previous communications to Congress that it saw no legal basis for contempt because it involved executive privilege.<\/p>\n<p>An Office of Legal Counsel memo obtained by the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em> detailed the DOJ\u2019s position that the House has no ability to overcome Biden\u2019s privilege assertion.<\/p>\n<p>The memo, which was written by several DOJ officials to Garland in May, stated that for nearly 70 years and across several administrations, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/campaign-2024-an-early-look-at-the-possible-republican-contenders\/\" title=\"Campaign 2024: An Early Look At The Possible Republican Contenders\">executive branch<\/a> has found that the criminal contempt statute cannot be used against officials, such as Garland, who are adhering to executive privilege.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cConsistent with this longstanding position, no U.S. Attorney has pursued criminal contempt charges against an Executive Branch official asserting the President\u2019s claim of executive privilege,\u201d the memo read.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Republicans still have another option to attempt to obtain the audio. According to their contempt report, they can also move to sue the DOJ as a way to enforce their subpoena of the recordings.<\/p>\n<p>The conservative groups Judicial Watch and the Heritage Foundation, along with a CNN-led media coalition, have all already filed their own lawsuits against the DOJ to obtain the audio separately from Congress. The department is fighting those efforts as well.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Attorney General Merrick Garland called the House&#8217;s near party-line vote to hold him in contempt of Congress &#8220;deeply disappointing.&#8221; He criticized the action, typically a last resort to enforce subpoenas, as transforming contempt from a &#8220;serious congressional authority&#8221; into a &#8220;partisan weapon.&#8221; The contempt proceedings were initiated by Republicans<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":2266360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/AP23276689468641.jpg.optimal.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2266359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/AP23276689468641.jpg.optimal.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2266359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2266359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2266359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2266360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2266359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2266359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2266359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}