Image source, Getty Images
- Author, Max Matza
- Role, BBC News
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) declined to file charges against Attorney General Merrick Garland for contempt of Congress after the House of Representatives narrowly voted to punish him for his refusal to turn over audio tapes from an investigation into President Joe Biden.
The Republican-controlled House voted 216-207 on Wednesday to recommend that the DoJ, the department overseen by Mr. Garland, file criminal charges against America’s top law enforcement official.
The move stems from Mr. Garland’s refusal to turn over recorded interviews to Republican lawmakers as part of a Justice Department investigation into Mr. Biden’s handling of classified documents.
In a letter sent Friday to Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, a senior Justice Department official said the department considers Mr. Garland’s actions “do not constitute a crime.” Mr Johnson called the move “sadly predictable”.
Carlos Felipe Uriarte, deputy attorney general, said the department had a “long-standing position” not to file charges in cases where the president made the decision to withhold requested documents using his power of executive privilege.
Executive privilege is a legal doctrine that grants presidents the right to withhold information about the executive branch from the other two branches of the U.S. government.
“Accordingly, the Department will not bring the contempt of Congress citation before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute the Attorney General,” Mr. Uriarte wrote.
The House speaker said he would go to federal court to force the attorney general to turn over the audio.
Mr. Johnson called the DoJ decision “another example of the two-tiered justice system that the Biden administration has presented to us.”
He cited the case of two former Trump aides, Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, who tried to invoke executive privilege to ignore congressional subpoenas. They were found guilty of contempt of Congress, criminally prosecuted and sentenced to prison.
Last month, Mr. Biden invoked executive privilege to block congressional Republicans from accessing recordings of his interview with special counsel Robert Hur, who was investigating his retention of classified documents after serving as vice president.
Mr. Biden returned the documents once they were discovered. The Justice Department special counsel who interviewed the Democratic US president said that even if he had kept the files, he should not be charged because jurors would likely view him as an “older, well-meaning man with a bad memory.”
The White House said Republicans had no legitimate need to access the five hours of audio, since a transcript had already been released. They argued that Republicans wanted to use the audio for attack ads against Mr. Biden as he seeks his second term as president in November.
As the oldest US president, Mr Biden’s age, 81, is seen by his opponents as a major political vulnerability. His Republican challenger, Donald Trump, just turned 78.
Trump faces federal prosecution for retaining documents intended to be given to government archivists after he leaves office.
He allegedly attempted to obstruct justice by hiding the classified notes after being ordered to submit them.
Two other attorneys general have been tried for contempt of Congress in recent years.
In both cases, Eric Holder, a Democrat, and Bill Barr, a Republican, received similar letters from the DoJ stating that prosecutors were declining to file charges.
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News Source : www.bbc.com
