DOJ Asks House GOP to 'Avoid Conflict'

The Justice Department is calling on House Republicans to "avoid conflict" and says it has already complied with a request from legislators who threatened to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress, PBS NewsHour reported.

House Oversight and Accountability Chair James Comer, R-Ky., and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, wrote a letter last month demanding that Garland turn over unreacted audio and transcripts of interviews conducted by special counsel Robert Hur during his investigation into President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents.

The legislators threatened to hold "contempt of Congress proceedings" if they did not receive the items they requested in the subpoena House Republicans issued in February.

Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte, the Justice Department’s head of congressional affairs, responded in a letter to Comer and Jordan contradicting their claims, saying that the department has already complied with the subpoena and provided the requested items.

"The Committees have received the information you requested. That information may not have substantiated the concerns the Committees articulated, but it does appear to help resolve them and your inquiry," Uriarte wrote.

"The Committees’ reaction is difficult to explain in terms of any lack of information or frustration of any informational or investigative imperative, given the Department’s actual conduct," he added. "We are therefore concerned that the Committees are disappointed not because you didn’t receive information, but because you did."

Uriarte went on to say, "We urge the Committees to avoid conflict rather than seek it."

Hur testified last month before the House Judiciary Committee where he said, "What I wrote is what I believe the evidence shows, and what I expect jurors would perceive and believe. I did not sanitize my explanation. Nor did I disparage the president unfairly."

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