Rep. Hageman Votes to Hold Garland in Contempt of Congress

Washington, DC – Today, Congresswoman Harriet Hageman voted in favor of H. Res. 1292 - Report to accompany the Resolution Recommending that the House of Representatives Find United States Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in Contempt of Congress for Refusal to Comply with a Subpoena Duly Issued by the Committee on the Judiciary. This resolution upholds the House's institutional power by recommending that the House find Attorney General Garland in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with the Committee’s subpoenas.

Representative Hageman stated, “There are no grounds for withholding audio or video recordings from President Biden’s interview with Special Council Hur considering that the Department of Justice provided the transcript months ago. The moment that the transcript was released, the right to exert Executive Privilege was waived.

“The tapes are important for several reasons. First, transcripts have been altered by this White House for previous speeches and events, so having the transcript verified as accurate by the recordings would be useful. Second, while transcripts can show us what was said, they do not reveal how something was said. The Department of Justice has already acknowledged that the transcript and the recordings are not identical – we must be allowed to know to what extent they are different.

“Attorney General Garland must comply with the Congressionally issued subpoena or face the consequences for not doing so.”

Background:

• In the weeks following the February 5, 2024, release of Special Counsel Robert K. Hur’s report, the three House Committees conducting an impeachment inquiry to determine whether to draft articles of impeachment against President Biden engaged with the Department of Justice to obtain a limited set of documents and records related to the report.

• After the Department declined to provide the Committees with the relevant documents and records, the Committee on the Judiciary (‘‘Judiciary Committee’’) and the Committee on Oversight and Accountability (‘‘Oversight Committee’’) issued identical subpoenas on February 27, 2024, to Attorney General Merrick B. Garland compelling production of four specific categories of documents and records, including audio and video recordings of Special Counsel Hur’s interviews with President Biden and his ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer.

• To date, the Department has refused to produce the audio recordings. During Special Counsel Hur’s investigation, his team uncovered evidence that President Biden ‘‘willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen.’’

• Special Counsel Hur found that then-Vice President Biden had ‘‘strong motivations’’ to flout the rules for properly handling classified materials. meetings and events that would be of interest to prospective readers and buyers of his book.’’

• Despite this evidence, Special Counsel Hur ultimately concluded that no criminal charges were warranted.

• President Biden has vehemently denied the findings in Special Counsel Hur’s report and he and his legal team have attempted to frame Special Counsel Hur’s mention of President Biden’s poor memory as ‘‘gratuitous.’’ Yet during his testimony before the Committee, Special Counsel Hur stated that, ‘‘[t]he evidence and the President himself put his memory squarely at issue.’’

• In his report, Special Counsel Hur noted that, during both his and Zwonitzer’s interviews with President Biden, the president’s ‘‘memory was significantly limited,’’ and he ‘‘struggle[ed] to remember events and strain[ed] at times to read and relay his own [handwriting].’’

• Special Counsel Hur also observed that President Biden ‘‘did not remember when he was vice president,’’ ‘‘for[got] when his [vice presidential] term ended,’’ and ‘‘did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died.

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Contact: Chris Berardi, Sr. Advisor/Communications Director