众议院投票判定司法部长梅里克·加兰德藐视国会，因为他拒绝交出拜登的录音
【中美创新时报2024 年 6 月 12 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）众议院周三（12日）投票判定司法部长梅里克·加兰德藐视国会，因为他拒绝交出总统乔·拜登在机密文件案中的采访录音，这是共和党对司法部的最新和最强烈谴责，因为党派之间在法治上的冲突激发了 2024 年的总统竞选。美联社记者法努什·阿米里（FARNOUSH AMIRI ）对此作了下述详细报道。
216-207 的投票结果符合党派立场，尽管共和党一些较为中立的成员持保留态度，但共和党人还是联合起来支持藐视国会的行动。只有一名共和党人——俄亥俄州众议员戴维·乔伊斯——投了反对票。
加兰在周三晚些时候的一份声明中表示：“众议院将国会的一项重要权力变成了党派武器，这令人深感失望。今天的投票无视宪法规定的三权分立、司法部保护其调查的需要以及我们向委员会提供的大量信息。”
他补充说：“我将永远支持这个部门、它的员工以及它捍卫我们民主的重要使命。”
加兰现在是第三位藐视国会的司法部长。然而，司法部——加兰负责监督——不太可能起诉他。白宫决定对录音行使行政特权，将其保密，这将使对加兰提起刑事诉讼变得极其困难。
“看，我们在藐视国会一事上尽职尽责，我认为这传达了一个重要的信息，”这位路易斯安那州共和党人在投票后说道。 “我们会看看接下来会发生什么，但我的意思是，众议院必须完成自己的工作，我对今天的结果感到满意。”
白宫和国会民主党人猛烈抨击共和党人追求藐视法庭的动机，并驳斥他们获取音频的努力纯粹是出于政治目的。他们还指出，众议院司法委员会共和党主席吉姆·乔丹众议员在上届会议上违抗了国会的传票。
“这项藐视法庭决议除了玷污梅里克·加兰的名誉外，几乎没有什么作用，无论共和党今天对他说什么，他都将是一位优秀而正派的公务员，”司法委员会最高民主党人、纽约州众议员杰里·纳德勒在辩论中表示。
加兰为司法部辩护，称官员们不遗余力地向委员会提供有关特别顾问罗伯特·赫尔机密文件调查的信息，包括拜登对他的采访记录。
加兰在上个月的新闻发布会上表示：“司法部遭受了一系列史无前例、毫无根据的攻击。这项要求、这项利用藐视法庭获取我们敏感执法档案的行动只是最近的一次。”
当赫尔拒绝就拜登处理机密文件的行为起诉他时，共和党人非常愤怒，并迅速展开了调查。以乔丹和众议员詹姆斯·科默为首的共和党议员发出传票，要求提供赫尔今年春天采访拜登的录音。但司法部只交出了部分记录，没有交出采访总统的录音。
在遵守共和党传票的最后一天，白宫援引行政特权阻止了录音的发布。它表示，国会的共和党人只想“切碎”录音，并将其用于政治目的。
行政特权赋予总统向法院、国会和公众保密信息的权利，以保护决策的机密性，尽管这可以在法庭上受到质疑。
司法部一名官员上个月告诉共和党人，两党政府长期以来一直坚持认为，主张总统享有行政特权的官员不能因藐视国会而被起诉。
助理司法部长卡洛斯·费利佩·乌里亚特引用了 2008 年委员会决定放弃藐视国会的决定，当时总统乔治·W·布什主张行政特权，以阻止国会获取涉及副总统迪克·切尼的记录。
在加兰之前，上一位藐视国会的司法部长是 2019 年的比尔·巴尔。当时民主党控制的众议院投票决定对巴尔提起诉讼，因为他拒绝交出与特别检察官对特朗普的调查有关的文件。
数年前，时任司法部长埃里克·霍尔德因“快速而激烈行动”走私枪支而被判藐视法庭罪。在这两次行动中，司法部都没有对司法部长采取任何行动。
拜登案的特别检察官赫尔花了一年时间调查总统不当保留机密文件的情况，这些文件来自他担任参议员和副总统期间。调查结果出炉了一份长达 345 页的报告，质疑拜登的年龄和精神能力，但建议不对这位 81 岁的老人提出刑事指控。赫尔表示，他发现证据不足以在法庭上成功起诉此案。
3 月，赫尔在司法委员会作证时坚持不起诉的评估，民主党和共和党议员对他进行了超过四个小时的质询。
他的辩护并没有让共和党人满意，他们坚称司法部存在出于政治动机的双重标准，该部正在起诉前总统唐纳德·特朗普，原因是他在离开白宫后在佛罗里达俱乐部保留了机密文件。
但两次调查之间存在重大差异。拜登的团队在文件被发现后归还了这些文件，总统也配合调查，自愿接受采访并同意搜查他的家。
相比之下，特朗普被指控寻求助手和律师的帮助，向政府隐瞒文件，并试图销毁可能构成罪证的证据。
美联社记者凯文·弗雷金和阿兰娜·杜尔金·里彻对本报道亦有贡献。
题图：司法部长梅里克·加兰德在华盛顿国会山举行的众议院司法委员会听证会上作证时听取了一个问题。JACQUELYN MARTIN/美联社
附原英文报道：
House votes to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for withholding Biden audio
By FARNOUSH AMIRI The Associated Press,Updated June 12, 2024
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House voted Wednesday to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over audio of President Joe Biden’s interview in his classified documents case, Republicans’ latest and strongest rebuke of the Justice Department as partisan conflict over the rule of law animates the 2024 presidential campaign.
The 216-207 vote fell along party lines, with Republicans coalescing behind the contempt effort despite reservations among some of the party’s more centrist members. Only one Republican — Rep. David Joyce of Ohio — voted against it.
Garland said in a statement late Wednesday, “It is deeply disappointing that this House of Representatives has turned a serious congressional authority into a partisan weapon. Today’s vote disregards the constitutional separation of powers, the Justice Department’s need to protect its investigations, and the substantial amount of information we have provided to the Committees.”
He added, “I will always stand up for this Department, its employees, and its vital mission to defend our democracy.”
Garland is now the third attorney general to be held in contempt of Congress. Yet it is unlikely that the Justice Department — which Garland oversees — will prosecute him. The White House’s decision to exert executive privilege over the audio recording, shielding it from Congress, would make it exceedingly difficult to make a criminal case against Garland.
“Look, we did our job on the contempt, and I think it sends an important message,” the Louisiana Republican said following the vote. “We’ll see what happens next, but, I mean, the House has to do its work and I’m pleased with the outcome today.”
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 Rep. Jim Jordan, the GOP chair of the House Judiciary Committee, defied his own congressional subpoena last session.
“This contempt resolution will do very little, other than smear the reputation of Merrick Garland, who will remain a good and decent public servant no matter what Republicans say about him today,” New York Rep. Jerry Nadler, the top Democrat on Judiciary Committee, said during floor debate.
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.
“There have been a series of unprecedented and frankly unfounded attacks on the Justice Department,” Garland said in a press conference last month. “This request, this effort to use contempt as a method of obtaining our sensitive law enforcement files is just most recent.”
Republicans were incensed when Hur declined to prosecute Biden over his handling of classified documents and quickly opened an investigation. GOP lawmakers — led by Jordan and Rep. James Comer — sent a subpoena for audio of Hur’s interviews with Biden during the spring. But the Justice Department only turned over some of the records, leaving out audio of the interview with the president.
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.
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 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.
Before Garland, the last attorney general held in contempt was Bill Barr in 2019. That was when the Democratically controlled House voted to issue a referral against Barr after he refused to turn over documents related to a special counsel investigation into Trump.
Years before that, then-Attorney General Eric Holder was held in contempt related to the gun-running operation known as Operation Fast and Furious. In each of those instances, the Justice Department took no action against the attorney general.
The special counsel in Biden’s case, Hur, spent a year investigating the president’s improper retention of classified documents, from his time as a senator and as vice president. The result was a 345-page report that questioned Biden’s age and mental competence but recommended no criminal charges for the 81-year-old. Hur said he found insufficient evidence to successfully prosecute a case in court.
In March, Hur stood by his no-prosecution assessment in testimony before the Judiciary Committee, where he was grilled for more than four hours by both Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
His defense did not satisfy Republicans, who insist that there is a politically motivated double standard at the Justice Department, which is prosecuting former President Donald Trump over his retention of classified documents at his Florida club after he left the White House.
But there are major differences between the two probes. Biden’s team returned the documents after they were discovered, and the president cooperated with the investigation by voluntarily sitting for an interview and consenting to searches of his homes.
Trump, by contrast, is accused of enlisting the help of aides and lawyers to conceal the documents from the government and of seeking to have potentially incriminating evidence destroyed.
Associated Press writers Kevin Freking and Alanna Durkin Richer contributed to this report.
