The Department of Justice informed lawmakers on Friday that it would not pursue charges against Attorney General Merrick Garland, a notice that comes two days after the House voted to hold him in contempt of Congress.
Carlos Uriarte, an assistant attorney general, wrote in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) that Garland’s actions “did not constitute a crime.”
The DOJ’s notice came as expected after it said its stance was that the House’s contempt vote was not grounded in law and defied roughly seven decades of precedent.
The House’s vote was nearly entirely on party lines and came after the attorney general repeatedly refused to provide the transcript of an interview former special counsel Robert Hur conducted with President Joe Biden last year. All Democrats and one Republican voted against the measure.
The interview was part of Hur’s investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents. Hur found at the conclusion of his inquiry that Biden mishandled classified material during his time as vice president and senator and that the president inappropriately shared classified information with his ghostwriter.
However, Hur declined to prosecute Biden, in part because he said the president displayed memory problems. The president came off as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” who could give a jury pause as to whether he acted intentionally, Hur wrote.
House lawmakers leading an impeachment inquiry into Biden sought information from the DOJ related to Hur’s investigation, including the transcript and audio of the interview. The DOJ was largely compliant and provided the transcript and other items, but it remained adamant that it would not provide the audio, prompting lawmakers to subpoena Garland for it.
In the face of a contempt threat, Biden asserted executive privilege over the recordings at Garland’s direction.
The DOJ noted Friday that it has, on several occasions and across various administrations, declined to prosecute officials who defied subpoenas because of executive privilege.
“The longstanding position of the Department is that we will not prosecute an official for contempt of Congress for declining to provide subpoenaed information subject to a presidential assertion of executive privilege,” Uriarte wrote.
Garland became the third attorney general in U.S. history to be held in contempt after Attorneys General Bill Barr and Eric Holder. The DOJ, under both Barr and Holder, also declined to prosecute the attorneys general.
Under Barr, Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen wrote a similar letter to Congress, again citing the department’s position on executive privilege.
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Republicans still have another option to attempt to obtain the audio. According to their contempt report, they can also move to sue the DOJ as a way to enforce their subpoena of the recordings.
The conservative groups Judicial Watch and the Heritage Foundation, along with a CNN-led media coalition, have all already filed their own lawsuits against the DOJ to obtain the audio separately from Congress. The department is fighting those efforts as well.