Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., told Newsmax on Tuesday that the Republican lawyers on the House Judiciary Committee are "not afraid to press" Attorney General Merrick Garland for answers when he testifies before the panel on Wednesday.
"We're going to ask him about this two-tiered system of justice that seems to be emanating from this department," Cline said during an appearance on Newsmax's "The Record with Greta Van Susteren."
"For years, his department has been targeting conservatives – whether it's the president, whether it's parents seeking to exercise their First Amendment rights at school board hearings, whether it's Catholics seeking to exercise their First Amendment right to freedom of religious expression. We get, on the other side, a slow-walk of the Hunter Biden investigation by [U.S. Attorney for Delaware David] Weiss, who was trying to craft a sweetheart deal and happens to be the one that he [Garland] appoints as the special counsel to further that investigation."
"I think you're going to hear AG Garland issue a lot of statements about ongoing investigations, but I don't think that's going to deter these lawyers on the Judiciary Committee who are going to repeat their questions and continue to press," he said. "They're not afraid to press the attorney general to get answers. I've done it on the Appropriations Committee; I've done it on the Judiciary Committee. These lawyers are ready."
When asked if the committee plans to question Garland on if he intends to enforce subpoenas issued in connection to the impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden, Cline said Congress is trying to craft a solution for willfully unresponsive agencies.
"Unfortunately, what we've seen is a lack of enforcement [by the Justice Department] when subpoenas come out from the committee," he said. "We're prepping legislation that would actually deny salaries to federal employees who are convicted of contempt of Congress for failing to follow a duly-issued subpoena from a congressional committee."
Cline also said that committee members are interested in what was behind Garland's decision to appoint Weiss as special counsel in the Hunter Biden investigation.
"We definitely want to know what the motivation was for AG Garland selecting Weiss as the special counsel there because we saw the attempt at a sweetheart deal," he said. "We saw only through the whistleblowers' testimony and the judge's attention did this not take place and Hunter Biden not be given blanket immunity from future prosecution for any other crimes related to those that were in the sweetheart deal. So, we've got a lot of questions for him all across the Judiciary Committee."
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Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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