House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said House Republicans will file a lawsuit next week to force the Department of Justice (DOJ) to hand over audio tapes of special counsel Robert Hur’s interview with President Biden.
“We are going to file a suit next week against the – against the Department of Justice to enforce that subpoena. We’ll go to district court here in D.C., which is the appropriate venue, and we will fight vigorously to get it,” Johnson told reporters at his regular press conference.
Attorney General Merrick Garland refused House GOP investigators’ subpoena for the audio tapes, citing Biden’s claim of executive privilege.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson, right, had the House pass a contempt of Congress resolution against Attorney General Merrick Garland. (Getty Images)
Hur declined to prosecute Biden over his handling of classified documents and said the 81-year-old president presented himself “as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” and that “it would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him-by then a former president well into his eighties-of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”
Biden and his allies aggressively pushed back on concerns about his mental fitness in the report’s wake. The DOJ has also released the full transcript of their interview.
JOHNSON FLOATS DEFUNDING SPECIAL COUNSEL’S OFFICE AMID JACK SMITH’S TRUMP PROBE
Attorney General Merrick Garland has been held in contempt of Congress for not giving lawmakers audio of an interview between special counsel Robert Hur, left, and President Biden, right. (Getty Images)
However, Republicans seeking the audio recording argue it would provide critical context about Biden’s state of mind. Democrats, meanwhile, have dismissed the request as a partisan attempt to politicize the DOJ.
Garland’s refusal spurred House Republicans to hold him in contempt earlier this month, referring Garland to his own department for criminal charges. The DOJ ultimately declined to prosecute.
Johnson’s fresh threat comes, however, as Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., prepares to force a vote on her own “inherent contempt” resolution against Garland. It is a little-used congressional procedure that would direct the Sergeant-at-Arms to detain Garland for a trial by the House itself.
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Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., filed an inherent contempt resolution against Attorney General Merrick Garland. (Getty Images)
The measure has not been used since the 1930s and has never been used on a Cabinet official.
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Johnson, when asked about Luna’s plan during his press conference, said, “I’ve talked to Anna Paulina Luna and other colleagues about various ideas, but I don’t think anything’s been settled on as of yet.”
The DOJ declined to comment on Johnson’s remarks when reached by Fox News Digital.
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