News: House Oversight Committee Democrats are circulating a memo painting the Republican move to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt as a way to distract from the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
The contempt resolution, set to be voted on this week in the House, argues that Garland violated a congressional subpoena by refusing to hand over the audiotapes of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s interview with the president. The Justice Department strongly denies this and says it has cooperated by turning over transcripts of the interview. Biden has asserted executive privilege over the audio.
“Hearing these interviews on an audiotape rather than reading them in a transcript will not change the content of these interviews,” the Democrats’ memo reads.
The Republican argument — that the tapes would reveal “verbal nuances” integral to the impeachment probe — is brushed off by the Democrats as “simply ludicrous.”
“These contempt proceedings are a transparent effort to find a scapegoat for the embarrassing failure of this sham impeachment effort,” the memo concludes.
— Max Cohen
