Attorney General Merrick Garland has consistently obstructed subpoenas that Congress has requested during the Biden administration, Rep. Jason Smith told Newsmax on Tuesday.
The congressman's comments came as Garland appeared before a House panel grilling the attorney general on the the independence and integrity of the Justice Department.
Smith, a Missouri Republican who is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said on Newsmax's "Newsline" that Garland "is not acting like the attorney general of the United States. He is acting like [President] Joe Biden's personal attorney. Well, that's not how it is."
The congressman stressed that "clearly, if you just look at his conduct over the last couple of years, [Garland] has obstructed every subpoena that Congress has asked for with this administration."
He added that "this unfortunate situation that we have seen playing out, of a two class justice system that has been orchestrated by Merrick Garland and the Justice Department, is quite concerning," saying that there have been "numerous examples of obstruction."
Smith said in just one example that in cases against the president's son Hunter Biden, "they allowed the statute of limitations to expire in the tax years of 2014 and 2015, which were felony violations, according to the IRS whistleblowers."
In Garland's appearance before the House committee, he also defended the administration's refusal to hand over audio of Biden's interview with special counsel Robert Hur.
Smith said that "the attorney general of the United States does not have the authority to tell Congress what documents that we should request and which ones we should not request. We are in an investigation right now into the president of the United States and a big part of this investigation" are these audio recordings.
He said this is so, because "you have Mr. Hur saying that he wouldn't bring charges against President Biden, because he was a good man but wasn't mentally fit. Well, we want to see those audio tapes, because, if indeed Biden is not mentally fit, there are a lot of things we need to be looking at."
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Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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