House Republicans planned to vote as early as Wednesday to hold Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in contempt of Congress after the Justice Department refused to comply with subpoenas demanding audio recordings of President Biden’s interview with the special counsel investigating his handling of classified documents.
The Justice Department has already made public a transcript of Mr. Biden’s interview with the special counsel, Robert K. Hur, but House Republicans have pushed for the release of the audio of the interview, arguing they need the recordings to examine the president’s mental fitness.
Democrats have condemned the proceeding as Republicans abusing their congressional powers and seeking to use the audio for political purposes.
“The attorney general has substantially complied with their every request,” said Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, adding that the Justice Department under Mr. Biden has cooperated far more extensively with requests from Republican lawmakers than it did under the Trump administration.
In February, Mr. Hur, a former Justice Department official in the Trump administration, dropped a political bomb into the 2024 campaign, releasing a nearly 400-page final report summing up his investigation. Mr. Hur concluded that Mr. Biden should not face criminal charges, but a single line from his report handed Republicans significant political ammunition.
Mr. Hur wrote that a jury might view the president as an “elderly man with a poor memory.”
Mr. Biden has asserted executive privilege to deny House Republicans access to recordings. That move is intended to shield Mr. Garland from prosecution if House Republicans succeed in holding him in contempt.
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