Will Garland Be Sentenced to Prison?

Attorney General Merrick Garland was held in contempt of Congress today. The last time that an attorney general was held in contempt of Congress was during the Obama administration. Former Attorney General Eric Holder did not face prosecution because the Obama DOJ inspector general refused to prosecute Holder. However, Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon, two former aides to former President Donald J. Trump, have been sentenced to jail for being held in contempt of Congress.

The reason for the contempt of Congress vote is that Garland continues to refuse to hand over audio recordings of President Joe Biden’s classified documents inter with Robert Hur, Justice Department special counsel. The vote followed party lines except for one Republican who voted against the vote for contempt of Congress. Jarrett Stepman posted the following information at The Daily Signal. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Wednesday before the vote that the action had to be taken because Garland is refusing to comply with a “lawful subpoena.”

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing on June 4, Republicans demanded that Garland hand over the audio recordings. The Hur interviews with the president were prompted by the charge that Biden mishandled classified documents after his time as vice president.

A transcript of Hur’s discussions with Biden has already been released. However, the president has withheld the audio recording, claiming executive privilege. Republicans argue that the full audio recordings would give the public a full picture of Biden’s mental state.

That’s because the special counsel recommended not prosecuting Biden because he came off in the lengthy interview as an “elderly man with a poor memory” and said the president’s “diminished faculties” mean he was less likely to have willfully violated the law.

Garland also refused to hand over the audio, which is what prompted Republicans in the House to move for holding him in contempt….

Garland has said that the Justice Department went to great lengths to cooperate with Congress on the Hur investigation, but that the request for audio constituted a larger attack on the DOJ.

Garland, Republicans, and Democrats were all making comments. Garland accused Congress of making “a series of unprecedented and, frankly, unfounded attacks on the Justice Department. … This request … is just the most recent.”

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, said on the House floor that “Biden misled the American people about his handling of classified documents and that the president needs to be held accountable.” Comer accused the DOJ of insulating Biden from the consequences for “his role in his family’s influence-peddling schemes.” “After the vote for contempt, Comer put out a statement saying that this was done to hold Garland accountable.”

Democrats in Congress opposed the contempt vote. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., accused Republicans of holding the contempt vote against Garland and going after Hunter Biden because “they don’t have the votes to impeach Joe Biden.”

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., said that the vote was held because “the American people have a right to hear what was said between Biden and Hur.”

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., said in a statement that the American people have a right to hear the audio of the discussion between Biden and Hur.

“Merrick Garland is not above the law,” Gosar said. “His continued refusal to provide the lawfully subpoenaed audio recordings is an affront to Congress’ legal authority and it is a crime. For refusing to cooperate with Congress and for breaking the law, I voted to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in Contempt of Congress.”

Since Biden’s DOJ imprisoned Navarro and Bannon for Contempt of Congress, it is only fitting that they put Garland on trial for the same offense and sentence him to prison. Otherwise, there is a two-tiered system of justice in the United States.