WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans on Monday filed a lawsuit against Attorney General Merrick Garland for the audio recording of President Joe Biden's interview with a special counsel in his classified documents case, asking the courts to enforce their subpoena and reject the White House's effort to withhold the materials from Congress.
The lawsuit filed by the House Judiciary Committee marks Republicans' latest broadside against the Justice Department as partisan conflict over the rule of law animates the 2024 presidential campaign. The legal action comes weeks after the White House blocked Garland from releasing the audio recording to Congress by asserting executive privilege.
Republicans in the House responded by voting to make Garland the third attorney general in U.S. history to be held in contempt of Congress. But the Justice Department refused to take up the contempt referral, citing the agency’s “longstanding position and uniform practice” to not prosecute officials who don’t comply with subpoenas because of a president’s claim of executive privilege.
The lawsuit states that Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., made a “last-ditch effort” last week to Garland to resolve the issue without taking legal action but the attorney general referred the Republicans to the White House, which rebuffed the “effort to find a solution to this impasse.”
Garland has defended the Justice Department, saying officials have gone to extraordinary lengths to provide information to the committees about special counsel Robert Hur’s classified documents investigation, including a transcript of Biden’s interview with him.
The congressional inquiry began with the release of Hur’s report in February, which found evidence that Biden, a Democrat, willfully retained and shared highly classified information when he was a private citizen. Yet the special counsel concluded that criminal charges were not warranted.
Republicans, incensed by Hur’s decision, issued a subpoena for audio of his interviews with Biden during the spring. But the Justice Department turned over only some of the records, leaving out audio of the interview with the president.
“The audio recordings, not the cold transcripts, are the best available evidence of how President Biden presented himself during the interview,” the lawsuit reads. “The Committee thus needs those recordings to assess the Special Counsel’s characterization of the President, which he and White House lawyers have forcefully disputed, and ultimate recommendation that President Biden should not be prosecuted.”
On the last day to comply with the Republicans’ subpoena for the audio, the White House blocked the release by invoking executive privilege. It said that Republicans in Congress only wanted the recordings “to chop them up” and use them for political purposes.
But Republicans maintain that access to both the audio recordings and the transcripts are warranted to determine if legislative reforms need to be put in place for the storage, handling and disclosure of sensitive documents by members of the executive branch. Prolonging the investigation also keeps attention on parts of Hur’s report that were politically damaging to Biden as he seeks reelection against former President Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, in November.
Beyond the bitingly critical assessment of Biden’s handling of sensitive government records, Hur offered unflattering characterizations of the Democratic president’s memory in his report, sparking fresh questions about his competency and age that cut at voters’ most deep-seated concerns about the 81-year-old seeking a second term.
“We need the audio recordings and the transcripts,” Rep. Jim Jordan, the GOP chair of the House Judiciary Committee, said during a hearing Thursday. “Put simply, they are the best evidence of the president’s mental state.”
Executive privilege gives presidents the right to keep information from the courts, Congress and the public to protect the confidentiality of decision-making, though it can be challenged in court. Administrations of both major political parties have long held the position that officials who assert a president’s claim of executive privilege can’t be prosecuted for contempt of Congress, a Justice Department official told Republicans last month.
Assistant Attorney General Carlos Felipe Uriarte cited a committee’s decision in 2008 to back down from a contempt effort after President George W. Bush asserted executive privilege to keep Congress from getting records involving Vice President Dick Cheney.
The White House and congressional Democrats have slammed Republicans’ motives for pursuing contempt and dismissed their efforts to obtain the audio as purely political. They also pointed out that Jordan defied his own congressional subpoena in the last session.
It's unclear how the lawsuit against Garland will play out. Courts have not had much to say about executive privilege. But in the 1974 case over President Richard Nixon’s refusal to release Oval Office recordings as part of t he Watergate investigation, the Supreme Court held that the privilege is not absolute. In other words, the case for turning over documents or allowing testimony may be more compelling than arguments for withholding them. In that context, the court ruled 8-0 that Nixon had to turn over the tapes.
When it came to the Watergate tapes, the Supreme Court said it had the final word, and lower courts have occasionally weighed in to resolve other disputes. But courts also have made clear they prefer that the White House and Congress resolve their disagreements without judicial intervention, when possible.
Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, Thursday, June 27, 2024. House Republicans have filed a lawsuit against Garland for the audio recording of President Joe Biden’s interview with a special counsel. The legal action Monday, July 1, asks the courts to enforce their subpoena and reject the White House’s effort to withhold the materials from Congress. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
ROME (AP) — An Italian appeals court on Wednesday upheld the convictions of two American men in the slaying of an Italian plainclothes police officer during a botched sting operation but reduced their sentences. The new trial was ordered after Italy’s highest court threw out their convictions.
The court convicted Lee Elder Finnegan and sentenced him to 15 years and 2 months in prison and gave a sentence of 11 years and four months, along with a 800 euro ($863) fine to Gabriele Natale-Hjorth.
They were found guilty in the July 2019 slaying of Carabinieri Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega and after the first trial, both were sentenced to life in prison, Italy's harshest penalty. Those sentences were reduced on appeal, and last year, Italy’s highest Cassation Court ordered a retrial.
In the new trial, prosecutors asked that Finnegan be sentenced to 23 years and nine months and Natale-Hjorth to 23 years.
Teenagers at the time of the slaying, the former schoolmates from the San Francisco Bay area had met up in Rome to spend a few days vacationing. The fatal confrontation took place after they arranged to meet a small-time drug dealer, who turned out to have been a police informant, to recover money lost in a bad deal. Instead, they were confronted by the officers.
Cerciello Riga was stabbed 11 times with a knife brought from the hotel room.
In ordering the retrial, the Cassation Court said it hadn’t been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendants, with limited Italian language skills, had understood that they were dealing with Italian police officers when they went to meet the alleged drug dealer in Rome.
The defense had argued that the defendants didn’t know they were facing law enforcement when the attack happened, an argument their lawyers repeated during the new trial.
In a statement released by lawyers after the new verdicts, Leah Elder, Finnegan Elder’s mother, insisted that her son didn’t know he had police officers in front of him but said he was prepared to take responsibility for his actions.
“This trial is unfortunately connected to the tragedy of a person’s death, a grave fact that has marked and will forever mark the lives of all the families involved,” she said. “Bringing out the truth of the facts would help Finnegan take full responsibility for the pain he caused with his tragic reaction. I hope that, even as he pays for his mistake, he will also open up to hope for the future.”
The killing of the officer in the storied Carabinieri paramilitary police corps shocked Italy and the 35-year-old Cerciello Rega was mourned as a national hero.
Prosecutors alleged Elder stabbed Cerciello Rega with a knife that he brought with him on his trip to Europe and that Natale-Hjorth helped him hide the knife in their hotel room. Under Italian law, an accomplice in an alleged murder can also be charged with murder without carrying out the slaying.
Prosecutors contend the young Americans concocted a plot involving a stolen bag and cellphone after their failed attempt to buy cocaine with 80 euros ($96) in Rome’s Trastevere nightlife district. Natale-Hjorth and Elder testified they had paid for the cocaine but didn’t receive it.
Barry reported from Soave, Italy.
Gabriel Natale Hjorth is hugged by a relative after the reading of the judgment at the end of a hearing for the appeals trial in which he is facing murder charges for killing Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, in Rome, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Gabriel Natale Hjorth sits surrounded by his lawyers after the reading of the judgment at the end of a hearing for the appeals trial in which he is facing murder charges for killing Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, in Rome, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/ Alessandra Tarantino)
Finnegan Lee Elder, left, and Gabriel Natale Hjorth, sit before the reading of the judgment at the end of a hearing for the appeals trial in which they are facing murder charges for killing Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, in Rome, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Finnegan Lee Elder, center, is hugged by his lawyer Renato Borzone, after the reading of the judgment at the end of a hearing for the appeals trial in which he is facing murder charges for killing Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, in Rome, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Ethan Elder, left, father of Finnegan Lee Elder hugs his son before the reading of the judgment at the end of a hearing for the appeals trial in which Finnegan is facing murder charges for killing Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, in Rome, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Finnegan Lee Elder, second from left, and Gabriel Natale Hjorth, third from left, listen to the reading of the judgment at the end of a hearing for the appeals trial in which they are facing murder charges for killing Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, in Rome, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Rosa Maria Esilio, widow of Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, leaves after the reading of the judgment of the appeals trial for his murder, in Rome, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Ethan Elder, left, back to camera, father of Finnegan Lee Elder, hugs his son before the reading of the judgment at the end of a hearing for the appeals trial in which Finnegan is facing murder charges for killing Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, in Rome, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. At right sits Gabriel Natale Hjorth charged for the same killing. (AP Photo/ Alessandra Tarantino)
Gabriel Natale Hjorth is hugged by his father Fabrizio Natale, after the reading of the judgment at the end of a hearing for the appeals trial in which he is facing murder charges for killing Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, in Rome, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/ Alessandra Tarantino)
Andrea Varriale, top left, colleague of Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, and Paolo Cerciello Rega, his brother, attend the appeal trial of Gabriel Natale-Hjorth and Finnegan Lee Elder where they are accused of slaying the Carabinieri paramilitary police officer in Rome, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/ Alessandra Tarantino)
Gabriel Natale Hjorth leaves at the end of a hearing for the appeals trial in which he is facing murder charges for killing Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, in Rome, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. Two American men face a new trial in the slaying of an Italian plainclothes police officer during a botched sting operation after Italy's highest court threw out their convictions. (AP Photo/ Alessandra Tarantino)
Ethan Elder, father of Finnegan Lee Elder, left, attends a hearing for the appeals trial in which his son is facing murder charges for killing Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, in Rome, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/ Alessandra Tarantino)
Gabriel Natale Hjorth listens to his lawyer Francesco Petrelli during a hearing for the appeals trial in which he is facing murder charges for killing Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, in Rome, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. Two American men face a new trial in the slaying of an Italian plainclothes police officer during a botched sting operation after Italy's highest court threw out their convictions. (AP Photo/ Alessandra Tarantino)
Gabriel Natale Hjorth attends a hearing for the appeals trial in which he is facing murder charges for killing Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, in Rome, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. Two American men face a new trial in the slaying of an Italian plainclothes police officer during a botched sting operation after Italy's highest court threw out their convictions. (AP Photo/ Alessandra Tarantino)
