President Joe Biden asserted executive privilege in order to deny access to Republicans, who want to get their hands on the recordings of an interview with the President's special counsel, which was investigating how he handled government documents. According to Biden, the move of the Republicans was merely a political stunt.
Biden's assertion of the executive privilege will be shielding Attorney General Merrick Garland from prosecution in the event that House Republicans succeed in citing him for contempt for his refusal to submit the recording of Biden's interview with Robert Hur, pursuant to a subpoena by the House committees.
Two months prior to the request, a transcript of the special counsel interview was actually made public.
New York Times reported that Garland referred to the move by Republicans of seeking the audio recording as the latest in a series of "unprecedented, and, frankly, unfounded attacks on the Justice Department." There were also previous moves to defund the special counsel that was prosecuting former President Donald Trump.
However, two House Committees have still opted to move ahead with its contempt charge against Garland, AP reported. The committees that advanced the contempt charge were the House Judiciary and Oversight and Accountability committees.
In a justification of the committees' move, Rep. Jim Jordan, the GOP chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said that the department has the obligation to relinquish the materials that they requested pursuant to the issued subpoena.
"Attorney General Garland's willful refusal to comply with our subpoena constitutes contempt of Congress," he added.
If Garland would be held in contempt of Congress, he will be the third attorney general to be held as such.
White House counsel Ed Siskel earlier wrote a letter to Republicans saying that there was an absence of a legitimate need for the recordings. He then said that such lays bare the GOP's likely goal of chopping them up, distorting them, and using them for partisan political purposes.
"Demanding such sensitive and constitutionally-protected law enforcement materials from the Executive Branch because you want to manipulate them for potential political gain is inappropriate" he added.
Garland gave Biden a separate advice in a letter, which was publicized, concerning the audio recordings. He said that such recordings fall within the purview of executive privilege. This privilege protects the President's ability to seek counsel from his advisers without the fear of it being disclosed to the public. It is also meant to protect confidential communications that are related to one's official responsibilities.
