Comer Opens Markup Initiating Contempt of Congress Proceedings Against Attorney General Garland
WASHINGTON— House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) delivered opening remarks at a markup initiating contempt of Congress proceedings against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland for defying a subpoena issued by the Oversight Committee. Chairman Comer detailed how the Oversight Committee’s lawful subpoena issued in February 2024 requires the Department of Justice to produce the audio recordings of President Biden’s interview with the Special Counsel investigating his mishandling and improper disclosure of classified materials. Chairman Comer emphasized it is not the Department of Justice’s decision how to cooperate with a subpoena and that it is not above the law. He concluded that if Attorney General Garland wants to defy Congress and not produce the audio recordings, he will face consequences.
Below are Chairman Comer’s remarks as prepared for delivery.
Today’s mark-up initiates contempt of Congress proceedings against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland for defying a subpoena from the Oversight Committee.
The Committee’s February subpoena required the Department of Justice to produce audio recordings of President Biden’s interview with the Special Counsel investigating his mishandling and improper disclosure of classified materials. The Department has chosen not to produce them. That’s why we’re here today.
This is not a complicated subject. The Oversight Committee requires these audio recordings, and the Department of Justice has refused to provide them.
We are not in court. The accommodations process has been exhausted.
We are not making a request. The subpoena requires production.
We are not requiring anything that interferes with an ongoing investigation. The Special Counsel already concluded his investigation by choosing not to charge President Biden because he is an “elderly man with a poor memory.”
This morning, the Department of Justice informed the Committee that the President has asserted executive privilege over the audio recordings of the President’s interview with Special Counsel Hur. President’s Biden’s decision to withhold the audio recording from Congress is alarming.
The Committee has already obtained the transcript of the interview. President Biden must have something to hide because it does not make sense that he would suppress the audio if the transcript was accurate.
There is no substitute—as the many lawyers on this Committee will tell you—for a recording of an actual conversation. Not a summary. Not a report. Not a transcript.
The White House has shown it is willing to alter transcripts to protect Joe Biden’s image. We will not simply take the Justice Department’s word about this interview.
It is not the Department of Justice’s decision how to cooperate with a subpoena, just like the people who receive subpoenas from DOJ do not get to negotiate their compliance. The Department of Justice is not above Congress. It is not above the law.
It is also not the President Biden’s decision to assert executive privilege on audio recordings when the transcript has already been released. In 1974, the House rejected an attempt by President Nixon to release a transcript instead of subpoenaed audio recordings, and there should be bipartisan support to reject it here too.
Not long ago, a Member of this Committee said:
“The lesson is, please tell your children out there in America, if you get a subpoena to go before Congress, if you get a subpoena to go to the court, go. You have a legal responsibility to go.”
That was Ranking Member Raskin in 2022. Now, Ranking Member Raskin has spent this Congress making excuses for why people like Hunter Biden or, now, the Department of Justice don’t have to comply with Congressional subpoenas.
On January 10, 2023, this Committee announced an investigation into President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents. Two days later, on January 12, 2023, the Attorney General announced his intent to appoint a special counsel to oversee the criminal investigation of President Biden.
While the Special Counsel pursued his investigation, the Committee did its own work and found facts that have challenged the White House’s official narrative about these classified materials.
Months of thorough investigating by this Committee have revealed attempts by the White House to keep the truth from the American people. Not just about the documents themselves and why Joe Biden had them, but President Biden’s memory and mental capacity to do his job.
The Committee’s timeline begins well before the White House’s narrative that President Biden’s private lawyers just stumbled upon classified materials in November 2022 at the Penn Biden Center.
By May 24, 2022—six months before the White House’s story began—the White House Counsel, Dana Remus, contacted a Biden former employee to retrieve President Biden’s materials from the Penn Biden Center and then traveled there herself to pick up boxes.
Why would the most senior lawyer at the White House be going to pack up an office that was supposed to just have pictures and personal documents in it?
Why were President Biden’s personal lawyers visiting the Penn Biden Center days before the “discovery” of classified materials if they thought they were just picking up pictures and letters?
Why were they calling FedEx to pick up boxes and a White House employee was leaving with boxes before the November 2 “discovery?”
Now, the White House won’t permit this Committee to depose Dana Remus.
The White House won’t allow any of the employees that entered the Penn Biden Center before November 2022 to speak with the Committee.
What is the White House afraid of? Why not be transparent and open with this Committee and the American people?
For that matter, what are Democrats on this Committee who oppose the release of these audio recordings afraid of? The recordings will just be President Biden speaking. What is it that would make them nervous about that?
It’s because they know—once again—President Biden hasn’t been honest.
He hasn’t been honest about his family’s foreign entanglements.
He hasn’t been honest about mishandling classified documents.
And if the Democrats were honest, they’d admit President Biden’s mental capacity is declining.
Americans see it happening every day. In fact, six in ten Americans don’t have confidence in Joe Biden’s mental capacity.
If the Attorney General wants to defy Congress and not produce the audio recordings, he will face consequences for those actions.
The path before us is clear. I urge this Committee to move forward with holding the Attorney General in contempt.
READ MORE:
Chairmen Comer and Jordan Subpoena DOJ for Special Counsel Hur Investigation Documents
Comer Issues Subpoena to Former White House Counsel Dana Remus as Part of Classified Documents Probe