Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday condemned an “unprecedented and frankly baseless attack on the Department of Justice” and released audio of a meeting with Special Counsel Robert Hur about classified documents in President Biden’s possession. He defended President Biden’s decision to assert executive privilege to block subpoenas seeking audio.
Garland was en route to a memorial site for fallen intelligence officers, where the House Oversight and Accountability Committee and the Judiciary Committee each held hearings before the full chamber recommended that the attorney general be referred to the Justice Department. He briefly answered questions from reporters. This is a contempt charge because the police station refused to hand over the audio.
“In your professional capacity, you suggested that the president invoke executive privilege. He invoked executive privilege. It protects both of you personally. Is that a conflict of interest? ” one reporter asked.
Garland responded, “The Department of Justice is a fundamental institution of our democracy. The public depends on us to ensure that investigations and prosecutions are conducted according to the facts, the law, and free from political influence.” Stated. “We have gone to great lengths to ensure the commission responds to legitimate requests, and this was not the case.”
Biden claims executive privilege over recordings of classified documents Probe
Attorney General Merrick Garland recommended that President Biden invoke executive privilege over the audio recording of his meeting with Special Counsel Robert Hur. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
“On the contrary, it undermines our ability to successfully conduct sensitive investigations in the future,” he continued. “This is a series of unprecedented and frankly baseless attacks on the Department of Justice. This request, this effort to use contempt as a means to obtain confidential law enforcement files, threatens our investigation and It’s just the latest effort to defund it. It’s wrong to foster an atmosphere that puts our investigators and prosecutors at risk. The only thing I can do is protect this building and its people. It is to protect.”
Another reporter said Hur’s request for the recording “combined efforts to defund Jack Smith with other attacks that describe broader efforts to discredit Biden administration officials.” “What is it to be?” he asked. [Garland] and discredit the Department of Justice. ”
“We must proceed in accordance with the federal principles of prosecution,” Garland responded, explaining what he could do as attorney general. “We follow the facts and the law. We exclude improper influence from outside. That’s what we do here. We are committed to the ability to continue high-profile, sensitive investigations. We have protected and will continue to do so.”
“The chances of Jack Smith’s two federal lawsuits ever going to trial are now incredibly slim,” said a third reporter who was given a chance to grill Garland one last time before heading to the memorial. “I think it is,” he said, adding that it goes without saying that the trial will end this year. What does that say about the pace of the justice system and confidence in the Justice Department? ”
“The special prosecutor filed both cases last year. He appropriately requested a speedy trial. The matter is now in the hands of the judiciary and I cannot comment further on it.” Garland said.
President Biden (right) speaks at the beginning of a meeting with combatant commanders in the White House Cabinet Room on Wednesday, May 15, 2024, in Washington, DC. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Garland advised Biden in a letter Thursday that the audio is within the scope of executive privilege. Garland told the Democratic president that “the committee’s needs are clearly insufficient to outweigh the negative impact that producing the recordings would have on the integrity and effectiveness of future similar law enforcement investigations.”
Assistant Attorney General Carlos Felipe Uriarte urged lawmakers not to proceed with the contempt action to avoid “an unnecessary and unwarranted conflict.”
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“It has been the long-standing position of the executive branch of administrations of both parties that officials asserting claims of presidential executive privilege cannot be held in contempt of Congress,” Uriarte wrote.
In another scathing letter to Congress on Thursday, White House Counsel Ed Siskel said there was no legitimate purpose for the members of Congress to try to obtain the recordings and that it was likely their goal to “obtain the recordings.” “It shows that they are being chopped up, distorted, and used for partisan activities.” political purpose. ” The White House’s letter is a tacit acknowledgment that there are moments in Mr. Hur’s interview that portray Biden negatively in an election year, and that the release or selective release of the audio will make it worse. I am concerned that this may happen.
Former Special Counsel Robert Hur testifies before the House Judiciary Committee in Washington, DC, on March 12, 2024. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Transcripts of Mr. Hur’s interviews show that Mr. Biden has trouble remembering some dates and occasionally confuses some details, which longtime aides say is similar to Mr. (This is something he has been doing for many years both in public and private life), but other than that he has a deep memory. Mr. Biden and his aides are particularly sensitive to questions about age. At 81, he is the oldest president in history and is seeking another four-year term.
Heo, a former senior official in the Trump administration’s Justice Department, was appointed special counsel in January 2023 after classified documents related to Biden were discovered in multiple locations.
Many of the documents recovered at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, parts of Biden’s home in Delaware, and the Senate Archives at the University of Delaware were “mistakenly” stored, according to Ho’s report.
But investigators found evidence of intentional retention and disclosure related to some of the records found in Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, home, including in the garage, office and basement.
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The files concern the Obama administration’s troop increase in Afghanistan, which Biden vehemently opposed. Mr. Biden kept records documenting his position, including a confidential letter he wrote to Mr. Obama during the 2009 Thanksgiving holiday. Some of that information was shared with a ghostwriter who published his memoirs in 2007 and 2017.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
