House Republicans are expected to grill the attorney general about the federal prosecutions of Donald Trump and Hunter Biden.<\/b>
\nAttorney General Merrick Garland will use an appearance on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to defend the Justice Department against \u201crepeated attacks\u201d from Republican lawmakers who have sought to undermine investigations and put federal employees in harm\u2019s way, federal officials said.
Garland\u2019s scheduled testimony before the House Judiciary Committee comes as GOP House leaders are threatening to hold him in contempt in their efforts to gain access to audio recordings from special counsel Robert K. Hur\u2019s investigation into President Biden\u2019s handling of classified materials.
Biden last month exerted executive privilege to keep the recordings from public view after Garland requested he do so over concerns that releasing them could harm future efforts to get officials to cooperate with investigations and sit for taped interviews.
\u201cCertain members of this Committee and the Oversight Committee are seeking contempt as a means of obtaining \u2014 for no legitimate purpose \u2014 sensitive law enforcement information that could harm the integrity of future investigations,\u201d Garland plans to tell lawmakers at the hearing, according to excerpts of his opening remarks released by his office. \u201cThis effort is only the most recent in a long line of attacks on the Justice Department\u2019s work.\u201d
In a letter to the House Republicans last month, the White House said transcripts of the Biden interviews with Hur have already been provided to lawmakers and accused Republicans of wanting to \u201cdistort\u201d the recordings for political gain. Hur concluded in a lengthy report last fall that no criminal charges were warranted against Biden for his handling of classified materials after leaving the White House as vice president in 2017.
But Hur sharply criticized Biden\u2019s age, which Republicans used to amplify political attacks against the president as unfit for a second term.
GOP leaders called Hur\u2019s investigation politically compromised and railed against federal charges filed by another special counsel, Jack Smith, alleging that former president Donald Trump improperly kept classified documents after leaving the White House in 2021 and failed to heed requests from investigators to return them.
A Justice Department spokeswoman said Garland intends to push back against \u201cfalse narratives regarding the Department\u2019s employees and their work.\u201d
In his prepared remarks, Garland plans to say: \u201cI view contempt as a serious matter. But I will not jeopardize the ability of our prosecutors and agents to do their jobs effectively in future investigations. I will not be intimidated. And the Justice Department will not be intimidated. We will continue to do our jobs free from political influence. And we will not back down from defending our democracy.\u201d
Garland also will rebut Republicans\u2019 criticism of Trump\u2019s conviction last week in New York state court on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up an alleged sexual relationship with an adult-film actress. Trump and his GOP allies have falsely claimed that state prosecutors brought the case at the urging of the Biden administration and the Justice Department, even though federal prosecutors had declined to pursue the matter.
\u201cThat conspiracy theory is an attack on the judicial process itself,\u201d Garland plans to say in his remarks, adding that there has been an increase in \u201cbaseless and extremely dangerous falsehoods\u201d being spread against FBI agents and prosecutors.
\u201cThese repeated attacks on the Justice Department are unprecedented and unfounded,\u201d Garland intends to say. \u201cThese attacks have not, and they will not, influence our decision-making.\u201d<\/p>\n