Cases will finish trial last year. Whatay does that say about the confidence in the system . I will not be able to comment any further. Shortly after those remarks the House Judiciary Committee met to consider the Congress Charges against the attorney general. The resolution was eventually approved along party lines by a vote of 1815. It now goes to the full house when it will be considered at a time to be determined. The chair recognizes the gentleman from wisconsin for the pledge of allegiance to call up the report and move the Committee Report into the house the clerk will report without objection the report will be considered as read and the special counsel stated on page one of his report will fully retained materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen. He strong motivations to do so and to ignore the rules of properly handling the information in his notebooks. He shared some of the classified materials he kept with his ghostwriters writing a book for which joe biden received with 8 million advance and but we had motives and the classified information. All of this declines to prosecute joe biden because he is, quote, a sympathetic man with a poor memory and that brings us to today. Following the report we subpoenaed the transcript and audio recordings for the special counsels interviews and his ghost writer. They failed to produce the audiotapes to determine whether he appropriately carried out justice by not prosecuting or recommending the recordings are necessary and the transcripts alone are not sufficient evidence of the memory because the white house has a track record faltering the transcripts. Just weeks ago during a public speech, President Biden read a teleprompter instruction and stated imagine what we could do next when the white house put out the transcript it didnt include the word. In that case and in this case as well, the video and the audio recording is the best evidence of the words that President Biden spoke. The refusal to produce the recordings of the special counsel for his interviews with President Biden announced the demand that the Committee Trust and the department created and produced the transcripts are accurate and complete. Transcripts of the personal counsel likely had access to before they were finalized. There was a legal obligation to turn over the request of the materials pursuant to the subpoena. The willful refusal to comply constitutes the contempt of congress. Now today this morning we get an 11th hour invocation of executive privilege exerting for the same reason we need the audio recordings they offer a unique perspective. This doesnt change the fact that the attorney general has hasnt complied with our subpoena. With that i will recognize the Ranking Member for an opening statement. Thank you mr. Chairman. 20 million taxpayer dollars, chairman jordan opposes the Government Spending on everything from feeding children to education and healthcare and has spent 20 million taxpayer dollars in this congress to investigate various conspiracy theories. What exactly has he delivered it to the American People on the 20 million investment, exactly nothing. No evidence that the conspiracies are true, no indictments, no impeachments or any significance the board of the directors. The Political Base may stay home next november. So he and the chairman were scrambling through the contempt. He wanted to see him he uncovered wrongdoing by the attorney general. Sometimes theyve been too responsive in my opinion is the american majority. The chairman was desperately hoping the special counsel would indict President Bidens mishandling documents so the chairman could attack President Biden and away from trumps treacherous handling of classified information. Of the reality of the special counsel cleared mr. Biden of wrongdoing. The chairman hoped he could intimidate for his crimes but donald trump has been charged with mediated felonies. The list goes on and on. The tremendous searches and intimidates, but there just isnt anything there. So what do our republican friends do when the investigation turns up short . Simply put, they engage in fantasy. That is what they are doing here today. Accusing the attorney general of withholding key evidence. The attorney general substantially complied with every request. The doj has produced 92,000 pages and documents to this congress alone and made dozens of witnesses available for interviews, hearings in briefings before the committee. As more pages of documents and more witnesses and the Trump Justice Department produced to the committee in four years. With respect to the february 27, 2024 subpoena, the department turned over all the information. Theres been no obstruction, only cooperation. This morning the president exerted executive privilege of the audio files at issue and the letter formed in the kennedy the department of justice noted that producing the audio recordings would, quote, raise an unacceptable risk for undermining the departments ability to conduct highprofile criminal investigations in particular investigations that of the white house officials exceedingly important. The chairman claims he needs this to understand the pace and tone of the conversation. This is absurd. In any event for the substantial concerns expressed by the president and the department. Moreover, with respect to the recording an issue in the report, the complete transcript has already been provided to the committee. The only thing that has not been is the reporting itself, which can be easily manipulated. This is not an idle concern. Last year we had in the closed door of deposition a manipulated video amplified by republicans on this committee that it contributed to a flat of Death Threats against him. This isnt really about a policy disagreement within the doj. This is about feeding the base. But dont take my word for it, take it from the chair mans mouth. Quote, im busting my tail to get a donald trump reelected. Quote, we need to make sure donald trump wins. Quote, its so important that we stay engaged and helped donald trump get back into the white house, and of quote and clearly he needs the germans help to win the white house the chair mans help to win the white house. Hes been indicted for times right at this very moment he faces 34 charges in new york and new York State Court for falsifying Business Records and making hush money payments to catch and kill information that could be harmful to trumps reelection campaign. He faces 40 charges in a federal court in florida for his mishandling and withholding of classified documents that put National Security at a severe risk. Four charges in a federal court in washington, d. C. And the attempt to overturn the 2020 election and fueling the insurrection of january 6, 2021 of the United States capital. Ten charges in Georgia State court for attempts to intimidate and force officials to overturn the Election Results in the 2020 president ial election. Thats not all. We are going to hear a lot about the memory today. Republicans will dimension that he is ranked as one of the most successful president s of our time. He will dimension the once in a generation transformative legislation is ushered into law. They will dimension the special counsel commented to President Biden that is, quote, photographic memory. They will just go on and on about a couple of gratuitous contradicted comments in the report that suggest the president has a poor memory. Republicans wont show you is the mounting evidence that trump has to hold the office of the president. The late, great hannibal lector cant even begin to understand how republicans have chosen this man as their champion, but they have. Now House Republicans are paying for it by flocking to the sidelines of the criminal trial sacrificing their integrity to defend him against the indefensible acts. Everybody seems to know that hes unfit for office and that these acts of public humiliation on this path are wrong. More evidence to my colleagues what do they need. Trump once said that he could choose someone standing on fifth avenue and would still keep supporters. At least in this chamber it is obviously true. And it truly saddens me. I sat on this body for many years and the ability to fully have disagreements ive never seen members of congress so readily turned the democracy itself to service of one man and never in my life that i would see members of congress readily attack Law Enforcement to protect the criminal. I never thought id see members of congress defend and minimize the attempt as if those that storm to this building and the Trump Associates that led them here were somehow patriots, but here we are. I think the chairman knows that this markup will amount to nothing. They pushed on the truly partisan lines and this resolution will do very little other than smear the reputation of garlin who will remain Public Servant no matter what they say about him today. It may give him something to watch on fox when he gets home from his criminal trial tonight, but it will almost certainly not convinced the department of justice to produce the one remaining question the effort before the contempt resolution will have been a partisan stunt distant to fail from the very start. Its a total waste of time. The American People actually need us to do important work, to fund the government, to secure affordable healthcare, to reduce inflation in housing costs, take care of children and families and to keep the nation safe. Im tired of these games and so are the American People. I urge my colleagues to oppose this measure and yield back. The chair recommends himself to explain the the amendment makes the change on page ten of the report and doesnt affect the substance of the report i yield back. There is no ground whatsoever to withhold of the intake that take must be quite something if the administration, if they decided to exert executive privilege to keep it from the committee in the course of an impeachment inquiry, think about it. The basis for withholding the audio recording when the transcript has been varnished must rest on something about the recording that is distinct from the information contained in the transcript. For example, what if the committee made a request for a different copy of the transcript . That is unlikely to happen but no reasonable person would ask for it either. The president and the white house had contested what was said in the interview, the special counsel in his report predicated his decision not to prosecute an obvious violation of statute and the president s rating from the classified information to the ghost writer to satisfy the terms of the 8 milliondollar book retainer on his findings the president was elderly and forgetful, in other words he placed tremendous reliance on what is called demeanor evidence. The president and the white house has viciously attacked the special counsels characterization of the demeanor evidence. That is whether and to what extent the president appeared to have limited capacity as a witness to testify for memory. Now the transcripts do not capture demeanor evidence. Transcripts are often in perfect especially to convey the timing of question and answer and the his notations among other things. All of that is demeanor evidence. Thats the reason among other things that it is absolutely Standard Practice in litigation in american courts for the parties to be entitled to record testimony by more than one means. Another method for recording the testimony and an addition to that specified in the original notice. Pretty straightforward. Given that the evidence is contradicted by the special counsel land by the president as to the reason the president has escaped prosecution for an obvious violation of statute, and because the Committee Sits and at the impeachment of the president. The committee needs the demeanor evidence the same way any party would in any such matter being litigated and the notion that there is a basis for a claim of executive privilege and what has been articulated by the Justice Department by the attorney general is that it would be detoured to future white house from cooperating with criminal inquiries because the interview would be made available and therefore its got to be exposed but the transcripts had already been provided. What possible basis could there be that would impair future white house cooperation with investigations if what the department is contending is just the same information in an audio recording form. That is an incomprehensibly absurd position, and so theres nothing to it whatsoever. This committee cannot be detoured in proceeding with the resolution in my view, and one can question the motives or attack motives, but its a straightforward as it can be. It is a simple presentation of demeanor evidence that is important to this committees investigation, inquiry to the potential president and should be accomplished and done. Im for it, lets go. Mr. Chairman, i yield back. The Ranking Member is recognized. Mr. Chairman, i have an amendment at the desk. The clerk will report. I mentioned in the nature of the substitute for the resolution recommending that the house of representatives find the gentleman is recognized to explain his amendment. This adds language from the most recent executive branch to the report. The Justice Department into the white house vote to the committee to inform us that the president was exerting executive privilege over the audio recordings. This assertion of privilege is used to protect important Law Enforcement interests and he is the attorney general road, the Justice Department has a vested interest in protecting materials related. They further explained that producing the audio recordings to the committee would raise an unacceptable risk of undermining the departments ability to conduct similar highprofile criminal investigations in particular investigations that are a cooperation of white house officials is exceedingly important. The white house also asked them to explain the executive privilege based on the longstanding commitment to protect the integrity, effectiveness and independence of the department of justice and its Law Enforcement investigations. A chairman jordan claims the recordings to understand things like tone. This is absurd. There is no attempt to explain the reasoning. It in no way overcomes the substantial interest of the Law Enforcement investigations. What highprofile witness for liver cooperate with Law Enforcement investigation if they knew the audio files and the conversations were released to committees seeking the finals only purely political purpose . This amendment simply ensures that it is complete and uptodate. I urge my colleagues to support the amendment and i yield back. The gentleman from california withdrawals his point of order and the gentleman from north dakota is recognized. Speaking in opposition, they dont get to choose. They dont get to choose. We spent a lot of time in the hearing in this room talking about ive been an advocate in the recording interviews and arrests and all of this. Its a pretty known legal precedent and rule and it exists everywhere. The person providing the evidence doesnt get to choose the matter and form that the evidence is provided. And this also happens to be a pattern. Five minutes before the hearing we got the transcript. Five minutes before this hearing we get the invocation of executive privilege. There is a difference between a transcript and video and audio, and i dont possibly understand the argument of we will release the transcript but we wont release the tapes and thats going to determine whether or not somebody participates in an investigation, which by the way they can be compelled to be done as well. The argument that this is somehow anything other than the doj trying to pick and choose which pieces of evidence were which parts of evidence are what they determine as the best evidence to our committee is quite frankly not based in any precedent under law. I spent ten years doing this and doing discovery requests. I never asked for permission. Im entitled to what it is. They dont get to determine what we get. That is not how the system works. And it cant be how the system works because otherwise the people who you are trying to conduct oversight on determine what information you get to conduct that oversight. This is simply not how the separation of powers is set up, or how any legal investigation in any jurisdiction in any form exists anywhere in the country. The audiotape exists. That is the best evidence in which to conduct oversight and with that, i yield back. The gentleman yields back. The gentleman from california. Thank you, mr. Chairman. First i want to talk about what the committee and the congress is doing to the rule of law. Earlier this week we witnessed a spectacle of the highest ranking republican in the country the speaker of the house, someone in line for the presidency standing outside a manhattan courthouse in a hush money payments to a porn trial gouging for the good character of the defendant. I would imagine if you asked a younger mike johnson some ten or 15 years ago could you ever imagine you would stand outside of a courthouse in a hush money payments to a porn star trial and vouch for the moral character of the defendant, you would never imagine that possible. But like the proverbial frog in the boiling pot, what we are seeing not just with this speaker but so many of the leadership over the last several years is one surrender of moral authority after another after another. One betrayal of what one stood for by another betrayal and another until you find yourself standing ou