Griffith remarks on Garland contempt vote

Thursday, July 11, 2024 – The U.S. House of Representatives will hold a vote today to hold the U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in inherent contempt of Congress. This measure comes as a result of Garland’s refusal to comply with a Congressional subpoena that requests the audiotapes from an interview between Special Counsel Robert Hur and U.S. President Joe Biden. U.S. Congressman Morgan Griffith (R-VA) took to the House floor to support the inherent contempt measure.

GRIFFITH BEGINS

“Mr. Speaker, at what point will the U.S. House of Representatives stand up and say we are not going to take it from the executive branch anymore?

“I say to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle this is not about Democrats versus Republicans.

“This is about Congress versus the executive branch.

“If the executive branch had a problem with a subpoena, they should have not filed a motion to quash.

“They should have taken it to the third branch of government and made sure that the subpoena was proper.

“They didn’t do that.

“They decided to be executive across the board, to dictate to this House – elected by the people – what the terms were going to be.

“I won’t stand for it anymore.

“It’s time we used our inherent contempt and hold the attorney general in contempt of congress. Thank you. I yield back.”

GRIFFITH CONTINUES

“Thank you very much Mr. Speaker – I’ve heard this motion called a political stunt.

“Let me assure my colleagues, Mr. Speaker, this is no political stunt.

“Congress must use its inherent authority when it deems it proper.

“This is a proper use of that.

“And I would say to the Gentleman as my feelings on this have nothing to do with the current situation politically.

“I advocated to then-speaker John Boehner that we use this measure on Eric Holder.

“If he chose to come to the floor of the House for a State of the Union address after having been found in contempt.

“It may very well be Mr. Speaker that on the criminal contempt, the Department of Justice headed by Merrick Garland can use prosecutorial discretion, which they did, which is also why it is inherent on congress to use its inherent contempt power.

“Because if we can only rely on the attorney general to hold himself or charge himself with contempt, congress no longer has the power to subpoena, congress no longer has the power to do its oversight, to do its investigations into any part of the federal government and we will be taking away all of the power.

“We will be emasculating the United States Congress.

“It is not appropriate.

“We should have used this power ten years ago.

“We should have used this power eight years ago.

“And now we must restore the ability of the United States Congress to get its subpoenas answered from the executive branch of this country.

“And if there’s a problem, Mr. Speaker, if the executive branch thinks we’ve overreached, if the executive branch thinks we’ve done something wrong, we have a third branch to make a decision on that.

“But the first step is for us to recognize and defend our constitutional prerogatives to do our job and to defend the United States Congress with inherent contempt against the executive branch. I yield back.”