US lawmakers push to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt over Biden classified docs tapes
Attorney General Merrick Garland
A panel of US lawmakers has advanced a resolution to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress. On Tuesday (June 11), lawmakers pushed the action in response to the Justice Department's refusal to release audio recordings of President Joe Biden being questioned over improperly holding on to classified documents after he left the vice presidency.
Can the Attorney General be held in contempt?
This move, as per AFP, is largely symbolic, as Garland's own department would ultimately decide whether to press charges.
However, itrepresents the latest escalation in tensions between supporters of Republican Donald Trump and the Democrat Joe Biden's administration, ahead of the upcoming November election.
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The House Rules Committee, led by Republicans, voted along party lines to advance the contempt resolution to the full chamber, with a vote expected before the weekend.
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James Comer, chairperson of the House Oversight Committee, stated,"If the attorney general chooses to defy Congress and not produce the audio recording, he must face the consequences of his actions".
The Biden tapes
Republicans in Congress have been pressing for the release of tapes from Biden's October deposition with Special Counsel Robert Hur.
Biden was interviewed as part of a criminal investigation into classified documents that Biden had improperly kept after his vice presidency.
Hur concluded in February that charges were not warranted but made the politically explosive claim that the US President had "limited precision and recall".He also suggested that a jury might view Biden as a "sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory."
While the Republicans have been trying for months to get the audio recordings, the Justice Department and Congressional Democrats argue that officials have cooperated by providing transcripts of the interview. They have also accused Republicans of seeking the audio for political gains in campaign ads.
In an op-ed published Tuesday (June 11) in The Washington Post, Garland warned that threats against the Justice Department and its employees have increased in recent weeks, describing the department as "under attack like never before." He criticised "baseless, personal and dangerous" attacks on the department and Republican threats to defund investigations into Trump.
Garland defended the Justice Department during a recent House Judiciary Committee hearing, stating that "releasing the audio would chill cooperation with the department in future investigations".
(With inputs from agencies)
