DOJ will ignore GOP's demand to prosecute Merrick Garland: 'Wasn't a crime'

The Department of Justice will not act on House Republicans' referral to criminally charge Attorney General Merrick Garland.

According to The Guardian's Hugo Lowell, DOJ "won't prosecute Garland for contempt of Congress, saying refusal to provide Biden audio wasn't a crime."

The criminal referral, passed earlier this week along a mostly party-line vote, stems from GOP-led House committees' demand for DOJ to hand over the raw video footage of special counsel Robert Hur's interview with President Joe Biden in the investigation over classified documents found in his personal effects — a matter which ended without Hur finding a chargeable criminal offense.

In response to requests by House lawmakers, DOJ turned over reams of information from that investigation, including a full transcript of the interview that in question.

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However, the GOP demanded the footage of the interview, which the White House invoked executive privilege on, saying there wasn't a valid investigative purpose for handing it over.

House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) inadvertently bolstered the White House's argument when he sent out a fundraising email to supporters that appeared to confess the primary reason for the request was to find clippable moments to embarrass the president in campaign material.