House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that he will "certify the contempt reports" of Biden administration Attorney General Merrick Garland to the U.S. Attorney of the District of Columbia following the Justice Department's refusal to file charges against him. Furthermore, the speaker claimed that Biden has created "a two-tiered system of justice" with different treatment for people for the same crime depending on their political leanings.
The House disagrees with the assertions in the letter from the Department of Justice, and as Speaker, I will be certifying the contempt reports to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. We will also move to enforce the subpoena of Attorney General Garland in federal… https://t.co/YOzqzlKWtE
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) June 14, 2024
Republicans move to take the attorney general to court
In a post on X, Johnson announced that GOP will move to take Garland to court to answer for his actions, and once again demanded the audio recordings from special prosecutor Robert Hur's interviews with President Biden be released. The attorney general has refused to hand them over.
The House disagrees with the assertions in the letter from the Department of Justice, and as Speaker, I will be certifying the contempt reports to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. We will also move to enforce the subpoena of Attorney General Garland in federal court. It is sadly predictable that the Biden Administration’s Justice Department will not prosecute Garland for defying congressional subpoenas even though the department aggressively prosecuted Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro for the same thing. This is yet another example of the two-tiered system of justice brought to us by the Biden Administration.
In addition, Johnson recalled the cases of Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, who were sentenced to prison for contempt of Congress. In fact, Navarro has already been behind bars for half of his four-month sentence, and Bannon is pending his appeal to the Supreme Court. For the moment, the judge determined July 1 as the date he must report to prison. According to the speaker, this is nothing more than "another example of the two-tiered system of justice brought to us by the Biden Administration."
Garland accuses GOP of using Congress as a 'partisan weapon'
After being held in contempt by Congress last week, Garland was "deeply disappointed" and accused Republicans of using "congressional authority" as a "partisan weapon" in a statement:
The Justice Department issued the following statement from Attorney General Merrick B. Garland regarding the U.S. House of Representatives’ vote on H. Res. 1292: https://t.co/20cJlTpVgN pic.twitter.com/XyFsJgv9qv
— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) June 12, 2024
