Next week, the Rules Panel will consider a resolution for contempt regarding Garland’s conduct.

A vote on the House floor to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress could take place next week after the Rules Committee on Tuesday considers the resolution passed last month by two other committees, The Hill reported Friday.

The Oversight and Accountability and Judiciary committees each approved a resolution finding Garland in contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas requesting material from special counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into the mishandling of classified documents by President Joe Biden when he was a senator, vice president, and private citizen. The committees, as part of their impeachment inquiry into Biden, are seeking audio recordings of Hur’s interviews with Biden and Biden’s ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer, plus other documents.

“The Department [of Justice] has invoked no constitutional or legal privilege to support withholding this material,” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chair of the Judiciary Committee, wrote last month in an amendment to the resolution. “Its failure to fully comply with the Committees’ subpoenas has hindered the House’s ability to adequately conduct oversight over Special Counsel Hur regarding his investigative findings and the President’s retention and disclosure of classified materials and impeded the Committees’ impeachment inquiry.”

But Garland told the Judiciary Committee on Tuesday the request for the audio recordings has “no legitimate purpose,” given the Department of Justice (DOJ) distributed transcripts of the interviews. Biden gave further legal cover to the DOJ by claiming executive privilege.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a member of the Judiciary Committee, told Newsmax on May 16 that Biden waived executive privilege when the DOJ handed over the transcripts.

And Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chair of the Oversight Committee, told Newsmax on May 7, “now that the investigation is over, we want those audio tapes because obviously something went badly wrong in that interview for Robert Hur to describe Joe Biden as essentially being a mental invalid.”

Hur in his report did not recommend charges against Biden, in part, because he believed at trial, Biden “would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

But even if all the hurdles are cleared, and the Rules Committee advances the resolution to the House floor, it’s not a given it will pass the GOP-controlled House. The Hill reported there are at least two House Republicans who said they will not vote for the measure.

Given the GOP’s razor-thin majority, they can only afford to lose two votes to pass a measure, provided everyone is in attendance to vote, so they will need to hold their losses to two. No Democrats are likely to support the resolution.

But the Rules Committee meeting could indicate a shift in dynamics because lawmakers wouldn’t waste time on a measure that would fail on the House floor.

Still, if the resolution passes, it would only be a referral to the DOJ to determine whether charges should be brought. The DOJ declined to prosecute contempt resolutions against three previous Attorneys General — Janet Reno in 1998, Eric Holder in 2012, and Bill Barr in 2019.

                <div id="p_lt_zoneContent_pageplaceholder_p_lt_zoneLeft_NewsmaxArticleLayout_writerbio_panel">

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                        <h4 class="writerName">Michael Katz <a href="https://www.newsmax.com/politics/house-rules-merrick-garland-contempt-of-congress/2024/06/07/id/mailto:editorial.katz@newsmax.com" class="writerEmail">✉</a></h4>
                        <h4 class="bioBlurb"/><p>Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.</p>

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