June 14 (UPI) — The Justice Department said Friday it will not prosecute Attorney General Merrick Garland after House Republicans voted to hold him in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over audiotapes from President Joe Biden‘s classified documents investigation.
In a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte said the Justice Department has a “longstanding” position of not prosecuting executive branch officials for withholding information.
“Consistent with this longstanding position and uniform practice, the department has determined that the responses by Attorney General Garland to the subpoenas issued by the committees did not constitute a crime, and accordingly the department will not bring the congressional contempt citation before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute the attorney general,” the letter read.
The Justice Department also argued Garland is exempt from prosecution because Biden asserted executive privilege over the recordings of his interview with special counsel Robert Hur.
The decision is consistent with the Justice Department’s two previous refusals of congressional contempt resolutions against Garland’s predecessors Eric Holder and Bill Barr.
The House on Wednesday voted 216-207, mostly along party lines, to hold Garland in contempt for ignoring a subpoena for the audio recordings.
Johnson at the time said the vote was a “significant step in maintaining the integrity of our oversight processes and responsibilities.”
Garland, however, wrote to the House that it “turned a serious congressional authority into a partisan weapon.”
“Today’s vote disregards the constitutional separation of powers, the Justice Department’s need to protect its investigations, and the substantial amount of information we have provided to the committees,” Garland wrote.
The audiotapes feature hours of Hur questioning Biden about how classified documents ended up in his home.
Hur in his report determined Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen” but “does not establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Hur said he chose not to prosecute Biden because a jury would view him as a “sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.”
Transcripts of the interview are available online, and the Justice Department previously handed over correspondence with Biden’s lawyers, but the House GOP wanted the audio log, as well, to determine whether there was anything relevant to a potential Biden impeachment.
Garland had said releasing the tapes could impede cooperation with future investigations of the White House, and Congress had no “legitimate” reason to need them.
Johnson, however, argued “it is up to Congress — not the executive branch — to determine what materials it needs to conduct its own investigations and there are consequences for refusing to comply with lawful congressional subpoenas.”