Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced that the House Judiciary Committee to file a lawsuit regarding audio recordings between President Joe Biden and special counsel Robert Hur.
The lawsuit would force Attorney General Merrick Garland to turn over the recordings, The Hill reported.
The suit is the latest effort to get the tapes after the Justice Department told Congress it would not be charge Garland despite the House voting to hold him in contempt.
“We are going to file suit next week against the Department of Justice to enforce that subpoena. We will go to district court here in D.C., which is the appropriate venue, and we will fight vigorously to get it,” Johnson said Wednesday.
Lawmakers have a transcript of Biden’s and Hur’s conversation, but Republicans want to hear the tapes.
Republican claim the tapes will provide more information about the Hur’s commentary on the Biden’s memory.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) pledged to force a vote on a resolution that would allow the House sergeant-at-arms to detain Garland.
Johnson was noncommittal on Luna’s motion and said her plan was one of several options being considered.
He added, “but I don’t think anything’s been settled on as of yet.”
An inherent contempt, which Luna suggested, has not been used in nearly 100 years.
House rules give little guidance for how detention of the attorney general would happen, especially since Garland has protective FBI detail.
Luna said the move as necessary in order to enforce the subpoena.
“This process demonstrates the seriousness with which Congress views non-compliance and the potential consequences for those who refuse to cooperate,” she wrote in a letter.
The Justice Department announced it would not pursue charges against Garland and said noted Biden has claimed executive privilege over the tapes.
The department said both Republican and Democratic administrations have not prosecuted those who do not comply with subpoenas when executive privilege has been asserted over the materials.
Garland accused Republicans of using contempt as a partisan tool.
