The Radical Left has been pushing back against House Republicans for quite some time. But now all of that is going to change.
Because House Republicans fight back with a major legal move that could change the political landscape.
Even though House Republicans threatened to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with their subpoenas, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has decided to ignore their requests for audio recordings of special counsel Robert Hur’s interviews with President Joe Biden for a classified documents investigation.
The deadline set by the congressional leaders for the materials was Monday.
In a letter addressed to House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) and Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte stated that a transcript of the two-day interview that had already been given to them should be adequate.
Uriarte said, ““The Department is concerned that the Committees’ particular focus on continuing to demand information that is cumulative of information we already gave you — what the President and Mr. Hur’s team said in the interview — indicates that the Committees’ interests may not be in receiving information in service of legitimate oversight or investigatory functions, but to serve political purposes that should have no role in the treatment of law enforcement files.”
Two weeks ago, Comer and Jordan wrote to Garland stating that they had obtained redacted transcripts of Hur’s conversation with Biden on March 12, which occurred just hours before the special counsel’s House testimony.
In accordance with subpoenas from February, the chairmen once more requested audio recordings of Hur’s interview with Biden, which they had emphasized as a priority, as well as audio records of the special counsel’s interview with Biden’s ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer.
The committees threatened to “consider taking further action, such as the invocation of contempt of Congress proceedings,” if Garland did not deliver the files by April 8.
However, Uriarte claimed that the committees have “already received the extraordinary accommodation of the transcripts, which gives you the information you say you need.”
He added, “To go further by producing the audio files would compound the likelihood that future prosecutors will be unable to secure this level of cooperation. They might have a harder time obtaining consent to an interview at all. It is clearly not in the public interest to render such cooperation with prosecutors and investigators less likely in the future.”
As “further accommodation,” Uriarte stated that a transcript of Hur’s interview with Zwonitzer was attached with his letter, which he claimed “supplements” earlier comments to the panels.
He maintained that the data presented “does appear” to allay the worries expressed by Comer and Jordan about congressional supervision of the DOJ and the Biden impeachment investigation.
In an indication that the disagreement over documents pertaining to Hur’s inquiry into Biden’s management of classified documents is still ongoing, Comer issued a statement stating that the Judiciary and Oversight Committees will reply to the DOJ “soon” while looking for “needed” information.
Comer said, “The Biden Administration does not get to determine what Congress needs and does not need for its oversight of the executive branch.”
He added, “The American people deserve to hear the actual audio of President Biden’s answers to Special Counsel Hur.”
Hur’s report, which was made public in February, condemned Biden for holding onto confidential documents while he was not in government, but the prosecutor decided not to press charges.
According to the report, Biden is an elderly man with impaired memory who is compassionate and well-meaning.
It is unlikely that a jury would find him guilty of a significant criminal that necessitates a mental state of willfulness.
The special counsel also discovered that after learning about the documents investigation, Zwonitzer erased tapes of his talks with Biden; nonetheless, the ghostwriter offered “plausible, innocent reasons” for his actions as well as other materials.
Hur claimed that in the end, he came to the conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute someone for obstruction of justice.
Hur’s descriptions in his report have drawn criticism from Biden and the White House, but Garland said that it would have been “absurd” for someone in his position to have changed or suppressed the special counsel’s explanation.
The Left cannot get away with this sort of deceit any longer, and the American people will know the truth.
Stay tuned to Prudent Politics.
