The House Judiciary Committee wants to find Attorney General Merrick G. Garland in contempt for refusing audio recordings of President Joe Biden’s interview with Special Counsel who investigated his handling classified documents.

Two sources familiar with these plans say that the Republican-led committee will hold a meeting on May 16 to review the contempt report, and then vote as a committee on the issue.

The decision of the committee to proceed with contempt is a dramatic increase in their months-long struggle to obtain recordings from Biden’s October interview conducted by former special counsel Robert Hur.

Hur concluded after his investigation, that Biden mishandled documents classified from his time as a senator and vice president. He also found that Biden revealed classified information to his ghostwriter during 2017. Hur, who interviewed Biden for his investigation, found that Biden mishandled classified documents from his time as vice president and senator, and that Biden disclosed classified information to his ghostwriter in 2017.

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The Department of Justice sent Congress a redacted version of Hur’s transcript. It confirmed that the president had memory lapses sometimes, but at other times he was sharp, and able to recall information with no problem.

The audio recording of the interview can shed light on other aspects of it, such as the mental health of the president.

Congress has sometimes used contempt to enforce subpoenas. However, it is rare for a Cabinet official to be held in contempt.

The House could vote to condemn Garland for contempt. This would be the fourth time that a Cabinet Member has been condemned in U.S. History. In 2012 and 2019 the House voted against holding two former Attorneys General, Eric Holder, and Bill Barr in contempt. Wilbur Ross, Commerce Secretary, was also held in contempt along with Barr.

After the House has approved contempt, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C. receives a criminal referral. The office must then decide whether or not to pursue prosecution. It is unlikely that U.S. attorney Matthew Graves will pursue Garland, as was the case for Holder and Barr who were not prosecuted in their departments.

The DOJ has resisted numerous requests from Congress, Judicial Watch, Heritage Foundation and CNN for audio recordings. The DOJ has been battling the Freedom of Information Act requests from all three groups.

A DOJ spokesperson disputed the validity of the action and warned that the release of audio would have a chilling impact on witnesses who come forward to law enforcement.

Carlos Uriarte wrote in a letter dated April 25, “We have… repeatedly encouraged the Committees to avoid conflict and respect the public’s interest by protecting sensitive files of law enforcement.”

The DOJ refused to comment on the Judiciary Committee’s decision to proceed with contempt.

Separately, on Monday, the committee threatened Mark Zwonitzer, who ghostwrote Biden’s memoir Promise Me, Dad, if he did not comply with a subpoena by May 20, requesting all records related his work on the novel. A letter obtained by The Washington Examiner confirmed this.

In a letter to Zwonitzer’s attorney Louis Freeman, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R – OH) stated that Freeman did not provide the materials requested by the committee and that the objections Freeman raised in response to Jordan’s subpoena were “unfounded.”

Freeman has not responded to a comment request.