The House Judiciary Committee advanced a resolution to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress over the Justice Department’s failure to produce the subpoenaed audio recording of President Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur.
The House Judiciary Committee considered a resolution to hold the attorney general in contempt during a markup session Thursday. The vote advances the measure for a full floor vote.
The move comes after the White House asserted executive privilege over the audio and video recordings related to Hur's interviews with the president as part of his classified records investigation.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that "the attorney general made it clear that law enforcement files like these need to be protected."
"And so the president made his determination at the request of the attorney general," she said. "So just want to make that second point that I made really clear."
Hur, who released his report to the public in February after months of investigation, did not recommend criminal charges against President Biden for mishandling and retaining classified documents, and he stated that he would not bring charges against Biden even if he were not in the Oval Office.
Those records included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan and other countries, among other records related to national security and foreign policy, which Hur said implicated "sensitive intelligence sources and methods."
Hur, in his report, described President Biden as a "sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory" — a description that has raised significant concerns for Biden's 2024 re-election campaign.
