Justice Department asks GOP to ‘avoid conflict’ following Garland contempt threat

The Justice Department urged House Republicans to “avoid conflict” in a brewing battle after they threatened the possibility of contempt proceedings in their efforts to gain information on special counsel Robert Hur’s probe of President Biden’s handling of classified records. 

The Monday letter from the Justice Department’s head of legislative affairs asserts the House’s Oversight and Judiciary committees received the information they requested when they asked for transcripts of Hur’s interview with Biden, as well as a recording of the conversation. They likewise asked for some of the classified documents as well as all communications with Biden’s attorneys.

“The Committees have received the information you requested. That information may not have substantiated the concerns the Committees articulated, but it does appear to help resolve them and your inquiry,” Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte wrote to House Oversight and Accountability Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

The letter goes on to assert the chairs may have requested the information for “political purposes that should have no role” in determining which law enforcement files are shared.

The two chairs have sought to connect Hur’s inquiry to their own impeachment investigation into Biden, a struggling effort that has faced further challenges since the arrest of an FBI informant who accused Biden of taking a bribe as vice president in connection with his son’s work in Ukraine. The informant was accused of fabricating the claim and indicted on charges of making false statements to the bureau.

“We are therefore concerned that the Committees are disappointed not because you didn’t receive information, but because you did. We urge the Committees to avoid conflict rather than seek it,” Uriarte wrote.

The GOP impeachment leaders nonetheless suggested Biden may have sought to place limitations during his interview on that subject, likewise asking for two documents related to Ukraine, including a call in which he exchanged pleasantries with the country’s former prime minister.

Uriarte said the committees “have responded with escalation and threats of criminal contempt” despite the “productions on each of the four subpoena items have met or exceeded the Committees’ stated informational needs.”

While the Justice Department has shared the transcript of Biden’s interview with Hur, it did not turn over the prized audio recordings Republicans demanded.

“The Biden Administration does not get to determine what Congress needs and does not need for its oversight of the executive branch. It’s curious the Biden Administration is refusing to release the audio of President Biden’s interview with the Special Counsel after releasing the transcript,” Comer said in a statement.

“Why shouldn’t the American people be able to hear the actual audio of his answers? The American people demand transparency from their leaders, not obstruction. The Oversight Committee will continue to work with the Judiciary Committee to obtain the information needed for our investigation of President Biden’s willful retention of classified documents. We will respond to the Justice Department soon.”

The letter comes after the two chairs threatened contempt proceedings against Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The back and forth over the recordings suggest the two sides could be headed towards a legal battle over the matter – something that could spur Biden to assert executive privilege and bar its release. 

Biden did not do so with any other aspect of Hur’s report, which, while offering a critical assessment of his memory, determined there was no evidence that the president wlilfully retained any national security documents from his time as vice president.

The committees have had the transcripts since March 12 – the same day Hur testified before the House Judiciary Committee.

In many ways the transcript was helpful for Biden, showing more nuance to portions of the conversation that led Hur to criticize the president’s mental acuity and memory.

“The Department is concerned that the Committees’ particular focus on continuing to demand information that is cumulative of information we already gave you—what the President and Mr. Hur’s team said in the interview—indicates that the Committees’ interests may not be in receiving information in service of legitimate oversight or investigatory functions, but to serve political purposes that should have no role in the treatment of law enforcement files,” Uriarte wrote.

The Justice Department argued the GOP investigators would be hard pressed to make a case they had a need for the audio files given that they have the transcript on hand – saying they would struggle to show the legislative purpose behind the request often needed to back such requests when challenged in court.

“Even assuming the Committees did have a remaining investigative purpose behind their request for the audio files that has not been rebutted by the information produced so far—and they has not identified one—it is critical for the Department to understand why the Committees believe they have a remaining need for the information in these files,” the department wrote.

If the GOP panels followed through on their threat to hold Garland in contempt of Congress it would largely be an empty gesture.

Such matters serve as a referral to the Justice Department, which then evaluates whether there is sufficient evidence to bring a case.

Updated at 6:21 p.m.