Biden Audio Fallout – This Could Mean Contempt Charges

Attorney General Merrick Garland is facing a contempt of Congress charge from the House Judiciary Committee for his refusal to turn up audio recordings of President Joe Biden’s interview with the special counsel looking into his handling of confidential materials.

Two people familiar with the proceedings said that the Republican-led committee will meet on May 16 to discuss a contempt report and take a committee vote on the issue.

The committee has been fighting for months to get the records of Biden’s interview, which former special counsel Robert Hur conducted last October. The committee’s decision to proceed with contempt represents a significant turn in the dispute.

Following his inquiry, Hur discovered that Biden had mismanaged sensitive materials during his tenure as senator and vice president, and had revealed confidential information to his ghostwriter in 2017. Hur’s interview with Biden, however, led the special counsel to conclude that the president may raise a reasonable doubt in the minds of jurors regarding his lack of willfulness, given his impression of a “sympathetic, well-meaning, old guy with a weak memory.” Hur stated that the president’s mental capacity was one of the reasons he decided not to charge Biden.

The president occasionally experienced memory lapses, but he was also smart and showed the capacity to retain facts without difficulty, according to a redacted transcript of Hur’s interview that the Department of Justice sent Congress.

The president’s mental state and other characteristics of the conversation that are not reflected in a written transcript may become clearer via audio recordings of the encounter.

Congress has occasionally utilized the power of contempt to compel testimony; nonetheless, it is uncommon to find a Cabinet officer in contempt.

The House would be condemning a Cabinet member for the fourth time in American history if it decided to hold Garland in contempt. In 2012 and 2019, the House passed a resolution finding former attorneys general Eric Holder and Bill Barr in contempt. The House found both Wilbur Ross, the secretary of commerce, and Barr in contempt.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., receives a criminal referral when the House finds contempt and has to decide whether to pursue prosecution or not. U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves is unlikely to charge Garland since he did not prosecute Holder and Barr.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has been defending against many demands for the audio recordings, including those from CNN, Judicial Watch, the Heritage Foundation, and Congress. To enforce their Freedom of Information Act demands for the tape, the three organizations have filed legal charges against the DOJ. The DOJ intends to challenge the groups as a whole.

A DOJ spokeswoman questioned the constitutionality of the action and cautioned that disclosing recordings may discourage witnesses from coming forward to law enforcement after the House Judiciary and Oversight committees threatened to hold the House in contempt.

Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte responded on April 25, saying, “We have consistently asked the Committees to avoid undue conflict and to respect the public interest in the Department’s capacity to conduct successful investigations by preserving critical law enforcement files.”

Regarding the Judiciary Committee’s decision to proceed with contempt, the DOJ chose not to comment.

In a separate development, the committee on Monday threatened to hold Promise Me, Dad, the ghostwriter of Biden’s memoir, in contempt if he did not cooperate by May 20 with a subpoena for all documents pertaining to his work on the book. The Washington Examiner was able to get a copy of the letter.

In the letter to Zwonitzer’s lawyer, Louis Freeman, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) stated that Freeman had not supplied any papers sought by the committee and that the concerns Freeman had made against Jordan’s subpoena were “unfounded.”