GOP House committees move to hold AG Garland in contempt of Congress

May 17 (UPI) -- Two Republican-led House committees have advanced an effort to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for not handing over audio recordings of Joe Biden's interview with a special counsel investigating the president's handling of classified documents.

The House Oversight Committee voted 24-20 late Thursday to advance the resolution in a hearing the descended in to chaos hours after the House Judiciary Committee voted 18-15 to do the same.

The passing of the resolution sends it to a full House floor vote in a largely symbolic move, as if passed would direct House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Ky., to ask the Justice Department to seek prosecution, which seems highly unlikely.

Republicans are seeking the transcripts of Biden's recorded October interview with special counsel Robert Hur, who investigated the president's retention of classified documents from his time as vice president.

Hur released a report on the conclusion of his investigation in February declining to file charges against Biden that also included controversial comments that questioned the president's memory.

The Republicans, who are in possession of the transcripts, which were made public in March, have issued a subpoena in demand of the recordings as part of its impeachment investigations into the president.

During his opening statement Thursday night, House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., accused the Biden administration of trying to hide something by not handing the recordings over.

"There is no substitute -- as the many lawyers on this committee will tell you -- for a recording of an actual conversation. Not a summary. Not a report. Not a transcript," he said.

"What is the White House afraid of?"

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., lambasted the proceedings in his opening statement as political theater, titling it: "Comer's High Crimes and Misadventures: The Hilarious Quest to Impeach a President Who Has Done Nothing Wrong."

Raskin first accused them of changing the time of the markup from 11 a.m. EDT to 8 p.m. so that House members could travel to New York City and be present for the election interference and hush-money trial of former President Donald Trump.

He then said the Republicans have yet to identify a single high crime or misdemeanor committed by Biden despite their accumulation of some 3.8 million pages of documents and 80 hours of testimony from 20 witnesses.

"There is plainly nothing relevant or material that our committee can learn from an audiotape, which we cannot learn from the 250 pages of the transcript. The format of the medium does not change the content of the communications," he said.

"So, in this absurd twist, our friends now seek to blame the spectacular bellyflop of their own impeachment probe on Attorney General Garland and his sneaky efforts to obstruct the investigation by cooperating with it."

The already-testy hearing turned argumentative when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., made a comment about Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett's appearance.

The controversial lawmaker asked if any of the Democrats present had employed the daughter of Judge Juan Merchan, the judge overseeing Trump's trial in New York.

Crockett, in turn, asked what that question had to do with Garland.

"Do you know what we're here for?" Crockett asked.

"I don't think you know what you're here for," Greene said. "I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you're reading."

The comment attracted angry retorts from Democrats, with Raskin saying "that was beneath even you" and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., shouting "That's disgusting."

"That is absolutely unacceptable," she said. "How dare you attack the physical appearance of another person."

"Are your feelings hurt?" Greene retorted. She then later challenged Ocasio-Cortez to a debate. When she declined, the Georgia Republican said it was because the New York Democrat didn't have "enough intelligence."

The hearing then descended into chaos and yelling, which ended with an effort to silence Greene for the rest of the meeting, which passed in a 22-20 vote.

On Thursday morning, Biden asserted executive privilege to block House Republicans from accessing the recordings. The use of the privilege had been at Garland's request, who argued that the committees' "needs are plainly insufficient to outweigh the deleterious effects that productions of the recordings would have on the integrity and effectiveness of similar law enforcement investigations in the future."

Comer said despite the block, Republicans would continue with their markup resolution on holding Garland in contempt of Congress for defying the GOP subpoena.

"Today's Hail Mary from the White House changes nothing for our committee," he said in a statement.

Since Republicans retook the House in 2022, they have been using their control of the chamber to launch impeachment hearings into Biden, first focusing on the business relations of his son, Hunter Biden, where no evidence of wrongdoing has been found. Then in 2023, Republicans opened a second impeachment inquiry into Biden's handling of classified documents after two batches were uncovered in late 2022 at an office he used and in early 2023 at his Delaware home.