The House Judiciary Committee is currently gearing up for a significant vote regarding the potential contempt of Congress by Joe Biden’s ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer.
According to two reliable sources, the committee is set to commence with a “markup” session on Thursday, which will be followed by a committee vote.
These preliminary steps are expected to pave the way for a full House vote on this matter.
This development stems from an incident in March when House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, who represents the Republican party, issued a subpoena to Zwonitzer after he failed to furnish requested documents.
The requested documents primarily encompass transcripts, audio recordings, and video recordings of Zwonitzer’s interviews with Biden for his memoirs.
The resolution that has been drafted by the Republicans specifically references special counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified documents.
Hur’s report apparently indicates that Zwonitzer took action to delete interview recordings after becoming aware of the investigation.
An investigator involved in Hur’s inquiry confronted Zwonitzer about this action, stating, “The outside observer is going to look at this and say ‘Mark Zwonitzer, President Biden’s friend, ghostwriter, collaborator learned of the special counsel’s investigation, saw this happening and then deleted all these audio recordings.'”
In response to this accusation, Zwonitzer merely stated, “I’m not going to say how much of the percentage it was of my motivation.”
Despite these developments, Hur ultimately decided not to pursue charges against either Biden or Zwonitzer.
However, House Republicans are asserting that Zwonitzer’s failure to fully cooperate with the Judiciary Committee has obstructed their ongoing investigation.
It is worth noting that in a separate incident previously, the House had voted on holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt due to his refusal to hand over audio recordings of Biden’s interview with Hur.
However, despite these actions taken by Congress, the Department of Justice – which is under the control of Garland and Biden – has made it clear that they will not prosecute Garland for contempt.
In light of these events and frustrations with lack of cooperation from key individuals within the current administration and its associates like Garland and Zwonitzer respectively – there are indications that Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) intends to put forth a motion for exercising Congress’s constitutional power of inherent contempt.
This would involve directing the House Sergeant-at-Arms (the chief law enforcement officer responsible for security at both chambers) to apprehend Garland.
