Washington – Weeks after the House Judiciary Committee voted to advance a contempt of Congress resolutions to him, Attorney Merrick Garland appeared before the panel for the inspection hearing, where he is expected to push back against the move as unfounded and serving “no legal purpose.”
House Republicans on the Judiciary and Oversight Committee last month voted to move forward with a resolution of contempt against Garland for denying his request. audio recording from the federal investigation to the handling of President Biden’s secret tapes.
The Justice Department said before the contempt vote it could not comply with a congressional subpoena to record the former special counsel. Robert Hur’s interview with Mr. Biden because the president is asserting executive privilege over audio. Prosecutors have previously released transcripts of the depositions and remain unsure whether the contempt vote will be brought to the full House for a vote.
According to a portion of Garland’s prepared remarks obtained by CBS News, the attorney general is expected to strike a more defiant tone than in past hearings, telling the committee, “I will not be afraid. And the Department of Justice will not be afraid. We will continue to do our jobs freely. from political influence and we will not back down from defending our democracy.
The Justice Department has refused to hand over tapes of Mr. Biden’s interviews at the risk of future investigations.
“I take contempt as a serious matter,” Garland said Tuesday. “But I will not jeopardize the ability of prosecutors and agents to do their jobs effectively in future investigations.”
At special advisorwho was appointed by Garland to lead the investigation, chose not to charge Mr. Biden as part of the probe, but criticized the handling of the secret tapes and questioned whether prosecutors could convince a jury to convict Mr. Biden, given his age and memory.
In response to the executive privilege claim last month, Jim Jordan, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said, “President Biden asserted executive privilege for the same reason he needed an audio recording — he offered a unique perspective.”
The White House and Mr. Biden rejected Hur’s characterization of the president’s recollection of the interview and said the transcript provided a more complete representation of the deposition.
Hur is not just a special advisor Garland has been appointed in three years he led the Department of Justice, and it is likely not the only independent investigator for whom Garland must answer when testifying there.
Special counsel Jack Smith has brought two cases against former President Donald Trump — one connected to the 2020 election and the other related to his handling of classified records. Meanwhile, special counsel David Weiss, Trump’s appointed US attorney from Delaware, is currently in the middle of a trial against the president’s son, Hunter Biden. They say Hunter Biden illegally bought firearms while on drugs.
Trump and Hunter Biden have pleaded not guilty, denying wrongdoing and accusing the Justice Department of allowing politics to influence the investigation, accusations from the political right and left that Garland denies.
“(The threat of contempt) is just the latest in a long series of attacks on the work of the Justice Department,” the attorney general is expected to tell Congress Tuesday. “It comes together with the threat to defund the investigation of certain Departments, the latest from the prosecution of the Special Counsel of the former President.”
A Justice Department spokesman said in a statement before the testimony that Garland would highlight the department’s work during his tenure and “force a push back on false narratives about Department employees and their jobs.”
Garland’s three years at the top of the Justice Department have produced what he says are the department’s priorities, including war crimes charges filed in connection with Russia’s attack on Ukraine, antitrust cases brought against corporate giants like Apple and Ticketmaster and efforts to curb them. violent crime.
However, Tuesday’s testimony from the attorney general and questions from the panel will highlight partisan political tensions.
“We are looking at threats of violence directed at career public officials of the Department of Justice,” Garland will tell Congress Tuesday.
In particular, they also hope to overcome Trump’s beliefs in New York state court last week on 34 counts of crime, calling the insinuations of Trump and his supporters that the Department of Justice is involved “false.”
“The conspiracy theory is an attack on the judicial process itself,” Garland said, according to a copy of his comments obtained by CBS News.
“These repeated attacks on the Justice Department are unprecedented and baseless … These attacks have not — and will not — influence our decision-making.”
One of the Justice Department’s top officials, FBI Director Christopher Wray, is scheduled to appear before a Senate Appropriations Committee subcommittee hours after the attorney general faces a House committee.
During his most recent appearance on Capitol Hill, Wray warned, “I get tired of thinking about a time when so many threats to public safety and national security are on the rise.” He will reiterate those concerns on Tuesday evening.
The FBI director told Congress in April conflict in Gaza has led to an increase in threats to the US, with the most immediate danger posed by those who want to carry out attacks on US soil.
During that testimony earlier this year, Wray, like Garland, also warned of “increased threats” to agents and facilities. “Having a badge is dangerous enough. You shouldn’t be a target either,” he said.
Since then, Smith, the special counsel investigating Trump, asked a federal judge to limit the former president’s public comments after Trump made false claims that FBI agents were “authorized to take” him while executing a court-authorized search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago home in August 2022. Smith alleged last month that Trump had ” Free distorted this standard practice by mischaracterizing it as a plan to kill him, his family, and US Secret Service agents.” Social media posts and campaign emails on the topic, prosecutors wrote, “present a significant, imminent, and foreseeable danger to law enforcement agents.”
Trump opposed the move and the federal judge overseeing the case has yet to rule on the matter and is seeking further clarification in the coming weeks.
In a statement, the FBI said, “The FBI followed standard protocol in this search as we do for all search warrants, which includes a standard privacy statement limiting the use of deadly force. No additional steps are required to be taken and there is no deviation from the norm in this matter.” .”