House votes to hold Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress

The House of Representatives has voted to hold US Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress, in Republicans’ latest attempts to salvage their so far unsuccessful investigations into President Joe Biden and his allies.

The House voted 216 to 207, with only Representative David Joyce of Ohio joining the Democrats to oppose the contempt vote.

The resolution specifically holds Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena that would have compelled him to turn over audio recordings Biden conducted with former special counsel Robert Hur.

Democrats have charged that Republicans want to use the audio recordings for political purposes and to shame Biden after the special counsel report said that the president, 81, is an “elderly man with poor memory.”

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer told The Independent that the vote for contempt was not political.

Republicans have failed to keep their conference on message in their investigation of the Biden White House. Last month, the House Oversight Committee conducted a markup of the resolution that devolved into a shouting match after Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene mocked Democratic Representative Jasmine Crockett for her “fake eyelashes”. Crockett hit back that Greene had a “bleach blonde bad-built butch body” in a response that went viral.

Garland criticized the vote in a statement on Wednesday.

“It is deeply disappointing that this House of Representatives has turned a serious congressional authority into a partisan weapon,” he said. “Today’s vote disregards the constitutional separation of powers, the Justice Department’s need to protect its investigations, and the substantial amount of information we have provided to the Committees.”

Republicans voted overwhelmingly late last year to launch an impeachment inquiry at the behest of former president Donald Trump.

“They're all part of a cult and they just try to please the leader of the cult Donald Trump,” sais Representative Jim McGovern, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee. McGovern noted that Republicans were hypocritical because Republican Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan did not comply with a congressional subpoena related to the January 6 hearing.

Comer denied that the vote had anything to do with Trump’s visit.

“The Democrats continue to prove they're not serious about oversight or accountability,” he told The Independent.

But so far, the investigation has failed to gain much traction, and resolutions to impeach the president have not come up.

“They can't impeach Joe Biden so they keep bringing up other people to try to please their base,” Representative Jared Moskowitz of Florida told The Independent.

Garland is now the second attorney general to face a full House vote to be held in contempt of Congress. In 2012, the House voted 255 to 67 to hold Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. In 1998, the House Oversight Committee voted to hold Janet Reno in contempt of Congress.

The move is just the most recent effort to reprimand officials in the Biden administration. In February the House voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas after an initial failed vote. Similarly, last week, the House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Pandemic brought former National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci before the House, when they repeatedly berated him and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said he deserved to be in prison.