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Washington — A few weeks after the House Judiciary Committee passed the bill. Contempt of Congress Attorney General Merrick Garland is expected to appear at an Oversight Committee hearing to refute the move, calling it baseless and “without legitimate purpose.”
Republicans on the House Judiciary and Oversight committees voted last month to move forward with a contempt resolution, saying Garland had ignored their requests. Audio recording From a federal investigation into President Biden’s handling of classified records.
On the eve of the contempt vote, the Justice Department said it could not comply with congressional subpoenas seeking recordings of the former special counsel. Robert Hur interviews Biden The president has asserted executive privilege over the audio recordings, and prosecutors have already released transcripts of the depositions, so it is unclear whether a contempt vote will be taken by the full House.
According to excerpts of Garland’s remarks obtained by CBS News, he is expected to strike a more defiant tone than he has in past hearings, telling the committee, “I will not be intimidated. The Department of Justice will not be intimidated. We will continue to do our job without political influence. And we will not shy away from protecting our democracy.”
The Justice Department argues that turning over the actual recording of Biden’s interview would risk chilling future investigations.
“I take contempt seriously,” Garland is expected to say Tuesday, “but I am not going to jeopardize the ability of prosecutors and investigators to do their jobs effectively in any future investigation.”
of Special AdvisorProsecutors who were assigned to lead the investigation by Garland chose not to indict Biden as part of the probe, but they criticized the handling of classified records and questioned whether prosecutors could have persuaded a jury to convict Biden, given his age and memory.
In response to the executive privilege assertion last month, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan argued, “President Biden is asserting executive privilege for the same reason that audio recordings are necessary: because audio recordings provide a unique perspective.”
The White House and Biden have denied that Huh mentioned recalling the president in the interview, arguing that the recording presents a more complete account.
Heo is not the only special prosecutor Garland appointed Garland has been leading the Justice Department for three years, but he likely won’t be the only independent investigator he will be called to account in his testimony Tuesday.
Special Counsel Jack Smith has two cases against former President Donald Trump, one related to the 2020 election and the other for handling classified documents. Meanwhile, Special Counsel David Weiss, the U.S. Attorney for Delaware appointed by Trump, is currently in the middle of a trial against the president’s son, Hunter Biden. Weiss alleges that Hunter Biden illegally purchased guns while using drugs.
Both Trump and Hunter Biden have pleaded not guilty, denied any wrongdoing and accused the Justice Department of letting politics influence their investigations, but Garland has denied accusations from both the political right and left.
“[The contempt threat] “This is only the latest in a long line of attacks on the work of the Department of Justice,” the attorney general is expected to tell Congress on Tuesday. “This comes alongside threats to defund certain Department of Justice investigations, most recently the special counsel’s prosecution of a former president.”
A Justice Department spokesman issued a statement ahead of the testimony saying Garland would highlight the department’s efforts during his tenure and “strongly refute false representations about Department of Justice personnel and their work.”
During his three years at the top of the Justice Department, Garland has made progress in areas he has said are priorities for the department, including war crimes allegations related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, antitrust cases against major companies such as Apple and Ticketmaster and efforts to curb violent crime.
Still, the attorney general’s testimony on Tuesday and questions from the committee are likely to highlight partisan political tensions.
“We are witnessing vicious threats of violence being made against career public servants at the Department of Justice,” Garland is scheduled to testify before Congress on Tuesday.
Notably, he also Trump’s conviction He was convicted of 34 felony charges in a New York court last week and maintained that insinuations by Trump and his supporters that the Justice Department was involved were “false.”
“This conspiracy theory is an attack on the very process of justice,” he is expected to say, according to a copy of Garland’s remarks obtained by CBS News.
“These repeated attacks against the Department of Justice are unprecedented and unfounded. They have not influenced, and will not influence, our decision-making.”
One of the Justice Department’s most senior officials, FBI Director Christopher Wray, is scheduled to appear before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee just hours after the attorney general appears before the House committee.
During a recent appearance before Congress, Wray warned that “it is difficult to think of a time when so many threats to our public safety and our national security have been elevated at one time,” and he is likely to reiterate those concerns Tuesday afternoon.
The FBI director told Congress in April that Gaza conflict Threats to the United States are growing, with the most immediate danger coming from those plotting attacks on U.S. territory.
In testimony earlier this year, Wray echoed Garland in warning of “growing threats” to agents and facilities. “Just having a badge is dangerous enough. Having a badge shouldn’t make you an additional target,” he said.
Smith, the special counsel who has been investigating Trump since then, the federal judge asked. Smith ordered last month to limit the former president’s public comments after he falsely claimed FBI agents “had the authority to shoot” Trump when executing a court-authorized search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago estate in August 2022. He argued that Trump “severely distorted these standard practices by falsely portraying them as plotting to kill Mr. Trump, his family, and U.S. Secret Service agents.” Prosecutors wrote that Trump’s social media posts and campaign emails about the case “pose a substantial, imminent and foreseeable danger to law enforcement.”
President Trump opposes the move, and the federal judge overseeing the case has yet to rule on the matter, seeking further clarification in the coming weeks.
In a statement, the FBI said, “As with all search warrants, the FBI followed standard procedures in this search, including standard policy statements limiting the use of lethal force. No one was ordered to take any additional steps, and no deviations from standards were made in this case.”
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