Posted on 06/20/2024 6:49:47 AM PDT by george76
Kash Patel, a former federal prosecutor and adviser to former President Donald Trump, has asserted that Congress has the authority to arrest and detain U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland for refusing to comply with a subpoena.
Patel’s statement stems from Garland’s refusal to turn over embarrassing audio recordings of Joe Biden’s classified documents interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur, which were subpoenaed by Congress.
Last week, the House of Representatives voted to hold Merrick Garland in criminal contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena.
Two GOP-led House committees passed resolutions in May recommending US Attorney General Merrick Garland be held in contempt of Congress for refusing to hand over audio of Biden’s interview with Hur.
Merrick Garland has reportedly “classified at the highest level” the audio tapes of Joe Biden’s embarrassing interview with Special Counsel Hur. The tapes have been locked away in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF), according to investigative journalist Paul Sperry.
...
The White House previously admitted in federal court to altering the transcript of Joe Biden’s testimony with Special Counsel Robert Hur.
The edits were made to artificially inflate Biden’s competence during his five-hour interrogation about his mishandling of stolen classified documents.
Biden has personally invoked Executive Privilege against The Heritage Foundation and Judicial Watch in an attempt to keep his controversial interview with Special Counsel Hur under wraps.
DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) asserted that no administration official has ever faced prosecution for non-compliance with a subpoena when the president has invoked executive privilege. Except if your name is Peter Navarro, Steve Bannon, or any other Republican.
The memo, obtained by The Hill, states, “For nearly seven decades and across presidential administrations of both parties, the Executive Branch has taken the position that the criminal contempt of Congress statute… does not apply to Executive Branch officials who do not comply with a congressional subpoena based on a presidential assertion of executive privilege.”
“Consistent with this longstanding position, no U.S. Attorney has pursued criminal contempt charges against an Executive Branch official asserting the President’s claim of executive privilege,” the memo added.
House Oversight Chairman James Comer previously argued that Joe Biden cannot assert executive privilege over the audio of his interview with Robert Hur because the transcript has already been publicly released.
Following the House’s decision on contempt charges, the Justice Department said they won’t prosecute Merrick Garland.
In a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday, the department said, “The department has determined that the responses by Attorney General Garland to the subpoenas issued by the committees did not constitute a crime, and accordingly the department will not bring the congressional contempt citation before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute the Attorney General.”
Patel, who served as chief of staff to Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller during the Trump administration, said that the House of Representatives, under its statutory authority, can instruct the Sergeant-at-Arms to arrest Garland and hold him in detention until he complies with the subpoena, according to Just the News.
“Merrick Garland said, ‘No, I’m not going to comply [with the subpoena]. I’m going to break the law,'” Patel said on the Just the News show.
“Then Congress under that authority granted to them by statute can have the sergeant at arms go and arrest Merrick Garland, and can hold him in detention until he complies, just like DOJ would do to anyone else who violates a subpoena,” he added.
According to House rules:
To supplement this inherent power, Congress in 1857 adopted an alternative statutory contempt procedure. Sec. 2, infra. Thus, the House may either (1) certify a recalcitrant witness to the appropriate United States Attorney for possible indictment under this statute or (2) exercise its inherent power to commit for contempt by detaining the witness in the custody of the Sergeant-at-Arms. Manual Sec. 296. The statutory procedure is the one used in modern practice, but the “inherent power” remains available. In one instance, the House invoked both procedures against a witness. 3 Hinds Sec. 1672.
In contrast, the Senate may invoke its civil contempt statute (2 USC Sec. 288d) to direct the Senate legal counsel to bring an action in Federal court.
...
GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna said she will bring force an inherent contempt vote to the House floor after the DOJ declined to prosecute US Attorney General Merrick Garland.
“The DOJ is not above the law. Garland is not above the law. Inherent contempt will be called up and brought to the floor,” Anna Paulina Luna said.
...
“I already filed the resolution and I will be calling up the vote,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna said.
I would imagine that the Speaker and several members of congress have Top Secret SCI clearances and the "Right to Know. This is a BS defense by Garland.
I like how this guy thinks.
People like him only appeared at the end of Trump’s Administration, after the likes of traitorous, spineless or stupid appointees like Jeff Sessions, Rex Tillerson, Elaine Chao, Nikki Hailey, etc.... I’d love to know the gritty details of that.
“The department has determined that the responses by Attorney General Garland to the subpoenas issued by the committees did not constitute a crime, and accordingly the department will not bring the congressional contempt citation before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute the Attorney General.”
We have investigated ourselves and find our regal selves to be above reproach!
Kash Patel is very credentialed btw
He says ‘the house has authority…’
This is where congress leaves the conversation. They don’t want to know about this. They’ll use their authority to take down Republicans and certainly Trump. But that’s where they’re done.
No exaggeration
The dems go after anyone that makes noise against them. And they have a weapon government to .....
From wiki
“Patel graduated from the University of Richmond in 2002. He received a certificate in international law from University College London in 2004,and earned a Juris Doctor from Pace University School of Law in 2005.”
He’s right!
Godspeed, to this suggestion.
Why are republicans helping the dems instead of helping the people who voted them on their position?
How can anyone rationalize voting for a liberal, angry, nasty, deranged, dementia patient?
Kash Patel for Trump’s Attorney General!!!!!
“Having the legal authority is great, but expecting House Republicans to do anything requiring an ounce of courage is pure fantasy.”
**************
House Republicans = Useless
If only...
who ever is the better marksman wins.
2) Where would Garland be detained/incarcerated? Who would watch him and care for his needs?
in the gulag. no one, same as for the j6er’s.
It's a wonderful thought to see Garland led away in handcuffs, but even if GOP leadership had brass ones the size of basketballs, it still is an unrealistic expectation.
well then,lets just roll
over and pee on ourselves.
( i concede you are right on the last point )
But they won’t.
Why didn't they do this six months ago?
Oh right, because they're the Junior Partner in the Uniparty.
Now they say they'll finally get around to this now that Merrick Garland has declared himself to be above any contempt-of-Congress charge.
The recent U.S. House vote to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt and the subsequent "No, thank you" by the Department of Justice he heads in response has invited renewed scrutiny over the plight of similarly situated individuals -- in particular, former Trump advisers Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon.
Following the DOJ's declination of prosecution as to Garland, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) announced that they'd see the DOJ in court, noting:Navarro is currently sitting in prison, and Bannon is set to begin serving a four-month sentence on July 1, both for refusing to comply with congressional subpoenas and subsequently being held in contempt for it."It is sadly predictable that the Biden Administration's Justice Department will not prosecute Garland for defying congressional subpoenas even though the department aggressively prosecuted Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro for the same thing. This is yet another example of the two-tiered system of justice brought to us by the Biden Administration."
Now, GOP House members have taken further action in relation to the seeming double standard. As laid out by Representative Eric Burlison (R-MO) in this tweet thread, the House has introduced a measure aimed at rescinding the subpoenas directed to Navarro and Bannon, as well as Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino, and withdrawing the recommendations to hold them in contempt of Congress.
Don't get excited -- the "moderates" in the party, the not-so-secret allies of the Democrats, will never vote for this.
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