Attorney General Merrick Garland Will Defy GOP Congressional Subpoenas
Merrick Garland, the Attorney General of New York State, said in a statement this week that he would not comply with subpoenas issued by Republican members of Congress that he did not support.
The Washington Post reports that Garland made his statement after Republican leaders in Congress threatened him with contempt for “their efforts to gain access” to audio recordings of Robert K. Hur’s investigation into Biden’s handling classified materials.
According to the Post, Garland requested that the president claim executive privilege over the recordings. She feared “releasing them would harm future efforts to get official to cooperate with investigations or sit for taped interview.”
Garland, who spoke this week before the House Judiciary Committee, accused Republicans of “seeking to obtain sensitive law enforcement data that could damage the integrity of future investigation” without any legitimate reason. This is just the latest in a series of attacks against the Justice Department.
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Republicans shot back, accusing Garland of weaponizing Justice Department. They cited recent indictments of the former President Trump as well as his recent conviction on 34 felony charges by a Manhattan Jury.
Republicans claim that audio recordings of Biden’s interviews could provide context missing from the White House transcripts. In his report, Hur called the president an “elderly, forgetful man”.
Rep. Andy Biggs, R-AZ, said: “The audio would tell us much more.”
Garland stated that he would not be intimidated by threats of contempt during the same hearing.
“I consider contempt to be a serious issue. But I won’t jeopardize our agents and prosecutors ability to perform their duties effectively in future investigations. I will not be intimidated. The Justice Department won’t be intimidated either. We will not be influenced by politics in our work. We will continue to defend democracy, he added.
