Posted on 05/14/2024 4:06:19 AM PDT by MtnClimber
House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) announced Monday that the Committee will hold a markup later this week to consider the a resolution recommending that Attorney General Merrick Garland be found in contempt of Congress.
The announcement came after Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee released a report recommending that the House of Representatives cite AG Garland for Contempt of Congress for defying a lawful subpoena.
“The House Committees on Oversight and Accountability and Judiciary issued subpoenas to Attorney General Garland on February 27, 2024 for records, including transcripts, notes, video, and audio files, related to Special Counsel Robert Hur’s investigation of President Joe Biden’s willful mishandling of classified information,” Oversight Republicans said in a press release, Monday. “Attorney General Garland has refused to provide the audio files of President Biden’s interview with the Special Counsel.”
“The House Oversight and Judiciary Committees issued lawful subpoenas to Attorney General Garland for the audio recordings of President Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Hur, yet he continues to defy our subpoenas,” Comer stated, adding that the audio recordings are important to their investigation of Biden’s “willful retention of classified documents and his fitness to be President of the United States.”
The Judiciary Committee’s 16-page report notes that Special Counsel Hur found that Biden, while Vice President, had “strong motivations” to flout the rules for properly handling classified materials.
In particular, Special Counsel Hur observed that “months before leaving office” as vice president, President Biden decided to write a book for “an advance of $8 million.” The classified materials retained by President Biden were an “invaluable resource that he consulted liberally” while writing his book so that he could give his ghostwriter “raw material . . . detailing meetings and events that would be of interest to prospective readers and buyers of his book.”
Additionally, Special Counsel Hur observed that President Biden viewed the classified materials “as an irreplaceable contemporaneous record of some of the most important moments of his vice presidency[,]” which “was valuable to him for many reasons, including to help defend his record and buttress his legacy as a world leader.” Despite this evidence, Special Counsel Hur ultimately concluded that no criminal charges were warranted.
The report goes on to note that Biden “vehemently denied” the findings in Hur’s report and blasted Hur’s characterization Biden’s poor memory as “gratuitous.”
During a House Judiciary hearing on March 12, Hur admitted that Biden had been less than truthful about his findings, when pressed by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.)
Joe Biden had said during his “trainwreck” presser on February 8, “I did not share classified information, I did not share it. I guarantee I did not.”
“That’s not true, is it?” Gaetz asked Hur in March.
“That is inconsistent with the findings based on the evidence in my report,” Hur responded.
“It’s a lie,” Gaetz shot back. “That’s what regular people would say, right?”
Laughing, Hur responded, “yeah.”
During his testimony before the Committee, Hur stated that, “[t]he evidence and the President himself put his memory squarely at issue.”
In his report, Hur noted that his interview with Biden, as well as Biden’s discussions with his ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer, had indicated that his “memory was significantly limited” and he “struggle[ed] to remember events and strain[ed] at times to read and relay his own [handwriting].”
Hur also observed that Biden “did not remember when he was vice president,” “for[got] when his [vice presidential] term ended,” and “did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died.”
During the press conference in February, Biden had angrily lashed out at the special counsel’s embarrassing conclusion that he was too mentally incapacitated to prosecute.
“There is even reference that I don’t remember when my son died. How in the hell dare he raise that? Frankly, when I was asked the question I thought to myself, it wasn’t any of their damn business!” Biden had fumed indignantly.
The transcript of his interview however makes clear that Biden had either lied or couldn’t remember what was said. Biden himself brought up the death of his son Beau several times during the interview, including when failed to remember the year he died.
According to the House Judiciary Committee, the Justice Department has continued to “withhold key material responsive to the subpoenas from the Judiciary and Oversight Committees—specifically the audio recordings of Special Counsel Hur’s interviews with President Biden and Zwonitzer.”
The report notes that the DOJ has not invoked constitutional or legal privilege to support withholding this material.
“There must be consequences for refusing to comply with lawful congressional subpoenas and we will move to hold Attorney General Garland in contempt of Congress,” Comer declared.
The Committee on Oversight and Accountability Markup is scheduled for Thursday, May 16, 2024, at 11:00am ET. The markup will be livestreamed online here.
Send the sergeant at arms to arrest him and put him in a cell.
Oooohhh. That’ll show him.
Compare the news media coverage of Trump or anyone else in his administration getting impeached or found in contempt, with the "coverage" of the same thing happening to their Democrat opposites.
To too many Americans whatever the Republicans do is a tit-for-tat minor nuisance at best. Not serious at all.
That's the power of the mainstream press. If they don't cover it, it didn't happen.
Exactly.. nothing ever happens.
Garland and I would something in common. I am also contemptuous of congress.
Thank God this idiot didn’t wind-up on the Supreme Court.
I sense another strongly worded letter being sent!!!
I can feel it!!!
Any time now!!!
BEE. EFF. DEE.
They’ll drag their feet, as everyone should know by now.
If I could dream, How do I apply for the Job Sergeant at Arms?
I’d be more than happy to drag that little bastard’s scrawny ass back to congress over 10 miles of chewed up roads.
Hey REPUBLICAN Congress, enough of the pansy assed BS. Grow a set of balls and do something. The old saying “the pen is mightier than the sword,” in this case is total absolute and complete BS.
Congressional Republicans have become world champions at talking about doing something, but actually doing nothing of substance. Taking the time to actually do something for America takes time away from their primary job which is fund raising.
Just like Eric Holder. 🥱
This congress has already put themselves at the gates of Hell, a good chance they’ll be pushed out in November anyway. Hey worthless GOPe, how’s that impeachment going against the nastiest criminal ever to hold the presidency? Can you think of a more despicable congress fake republican party in your lifetime? A ‘resolution’ LOL.
Ooooh …. schedule a mark up ….. to consider …. recommending ….
Sounds scary.
“I sense another strongly worded letter being sent!!!”
GMTA ... I was going to ask if there will be a strongly worded letter in the future. Most likely. These guys don’t mess around! Tough as nails, they are. 🙄
It is not entirely inconceivable that, perhaps, they may explore considering, maybe, a committee to, one may say, write a letter.
Yep. See tagline.
Look, I’m confident that Brandon might be impeached 30 times over, but it’d be a waste of effort for very little result inasmuch as the Senate would never convict.
Republicans who want to show something to the American people simply must develop and commit to a program for the country and its citizens. Campaign on that instead of wasting time on flourishes and gestures.
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