DOJ Won’t Prosecute Garland for Contempt of Congress

The US Justice Department won’t prosecute Attorney General Merrick Garland over a referral by House Republicans to hold him in contempt of Congress.

House Republicans voted Wednesday to hold Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over audio recordings of President Joe Biden’s interview with a special counsel over his handling of classified documents.

“The department has determined that the responses by Attorney General Garland to the subpoenas issued by the committees did not constitute a crime, and accordingly the department will not bring the congressional contempt citation before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute the Attorney General,” the department said in a letter Friday to House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Earlier: Attorney General Garland Held in Contempt of Congress by GOP

Johnson, in a statement released by his office on Friday evening, sharply disagreed “with the assertions in the letter from the Department of Justice” and said he’d go to court to enforce congressional subpoena.

Biden has asserted executive privilege over the audio, while the department has provided lawmakers with other materials related to the investigation, including transcripts of the president’s interview.

(Updates with Johnson’s response, in fourth paragraph.)

--With assistance from Billy House.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Chris Strohm in Washington at cstrohm1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net

John Harney

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