REPORT: Johnson Planning Court Action After DOJ Refuses To Prosecute AG Garland

Joe Biden and his administration often assert that no one is exempt from the law, particularly in regard to their pursuit of legal action against former President Donald Trump.

However, this sentiment seems to be contradicted by the handling of a congressional subpoena for audio recordings of Biden made by former special counsel Robert Hur during an investigation into unauthorized possession of classified materials.

Attorney General Merrick Garland, a presidential appointee, disregarded the GOP-controlled House’s criminal referral regarding this matter.

The discrepancy is evident given that Biden’s Department of Justice has prosecuted two of Trump’s former advisers, Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, for similar actions after they cited executive privilege. Despite their claims, they were still pursued legally.

House Speaker Mike Johnson declared last week that the House will take legal action to compel the DOJ to hand over recordings of Biden, which many Republicans believe will provide evidence of Biden’s cognitive decline.

Republicans initiated their pursuit of the recordings after discovering that administration officials tampered with transcripts of Hur’s interviews with the president, which were already provided to Congress.

Additionally, Johnson stated that he would seek court intervention to enforce the House’s subpoena of Garland.

“I will be certifying the contempt reports to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia,” the Louisiana Republican said. “We will also move to enforce the subpoena of Attorney General Garland in federal court.”

Earlier on Friday, the DOJ sent a letter to Johnson referencing its consistent stance of not pursuing legal action against executive branch officials who refuse to disclose information protected by executive privilege to Congress, as reported by CNN.

Republicans have argued that this assertion is unfounded as lawmakers have already been provided with transcripts of the interviews, albeit in modified form.

The announcement was anticipated after the House voted to hold Garland in contempt of Congress.

“Consistent with this longstanding position and uniform practice, 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 letter, from the department’s top congressional liaison, said.

Hur’s documentation of Biden’s substantial loss of mental capacity renewed arguments among what is now a large majority of Americans — based on the most recent surveys — that they do not believe the president can serve another four-year term, much less serve out his current term.

Just the news noted in February, when Hur’s report was released:

Hur’s 388-page report released Thursday may have spared Biden the spectacle of a criminal prosecution similar to that his Justice Department imposed on Donald Trump, but it delivered a devastating blow to the 46th president’s re-election hopes by going out of its way to explain criminal charges weren’t levied in part because jurors might see Biden as a doddering, forgetful old man incapable of criminal intent.

“Mr. Biden will likely present himself to the jury, as he did during his interview with our office, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” Hur wrote in explaining his rationale for refusing prosecution. “It would be difficult to convince a jury they should convict him – by then a former president who will be at least well into his eighties – of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”

“Our investigation uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen,” the report concluded.