House Oversight Committee Advances Contempt Charge Against Attorney General Garland

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., announced Monday that the panel will convene later this week for a markup session on a resolution to hold U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt.

The session on Thursday is a response to Garland’s refusal to provide the audio tapes of President Joe Biden’s interviews during special counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into Biden’s mishandling of classified documents.

“The House Oversight and Judiciary Committees lawfully issued subpoenas to Attorney General Garland for the audio recordings of President Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Hur, but he continues to defy our requests,” Comer stated in a press release.

“These audio recordings are crucial to our inquiry into President Biden’s intentional retention of classified documents and his capability to serve as President of the United States. There must be consequences for disregarding legal congressional subpoenas and we shall proceed to hold Attorney General Garland in contempt of Congress.”

It was recently reported that the House Judiciary Committee is also scheduled to have a vote on Thursday. Both committees will meet in the morning to deliberate on the resolutions.

Garland has refused twice to comply with a subpoena for the recordings. The most recent refusal occurred on April 25, when the Justice Department expressed concerns about potential misuse and the absence of a legitimate legislative or impeachment purpose for their release.

Republicans are eager to listen to how Hur arrived at the decision not to prosecute Biden for mishandling classified documents, concluding that Biden would be seen as a “compassionate, well-intentioned elderly man with a faulty memory” in any legal proceedings.

A contempt charge brought before the entire House would result in a criminal referral to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., to determine whether Garland, the head of the Justice Department, should be prosecuted.