WASHINGTON (CN) — House Republicans’ attempt to punish President Joe Biden’s ghost writer for defying a congressional subpoena predictably dragged out into a partisan slugfest Thursday, as Democrats accused their colleagues of engaging in a bad-faith effort to smear the president as election season gets under way.
GOP lawmakers have moved to hold Mark Zwonitzer, an author and documentarian who penned Biden’s memoirs, in contempt of Congress amid accusations that he withheld documents related to interviews he conducted with the president while working on his books.
Republicans also accuse Zwonitzer of deleting recordings of his conversations with Biden as special counsel Robert Hur investigated the president’s handling of classified documents. Hur’s February report suggested that Biden referred to classified material during his interviews with the ghost writer.
Although the House Judiciary Committee voted along party lines Thursday to advance Republicans' contempt resolution against Zwonitzer to the full chamber, Democrats framed the move as a last gasp in Republicans’ floundering impeachment inquiry — and as a cynical effort to help former President Trump win reelection.
“This contempt resolution against Mr. Zwonitzer is an abuse of the committee’s oversight,” said New York Representative Jerry Nadler, ranking member of the Judiciary Committee. “We’re here today because Republicans are, in a word, desperate.”
Nadler argued the president’s ghost writer is a private citizen, and that the documents and recordings he possesses should also be considered private.
“The committee subpoena is therefore a congressional subpoena for the president’s information,” the New York lawmaker added, “which unavoidably pits the political branches against one another.”
Democrats cited an April letter sent to the Judiciary Committee in which Zwonitzer’s counsel Louis Freeman made such an argument but contended that Republicans never sought to work with the White House to get the information they sought through the normal channels of accommodation.
Instead, Democrats said, the GOP rushed to hold Zwonitzer in contempt.
“We shouldn’t just gloss over the fact that you tried to circumvent all of the law that’s been put in place by the Supreme Court over the years in trying to address this and resolve it,” Maryland Representative Glenn Ivey told Republicans. “This is not actually a conflict between the committee and a private citizen. This is a conflict between the legislative branch and the executive branch.”
California Representative Eric Swalwell found himself in a tense exchange with North Carolina Representative Dan Bishop as he framed the contempt resolution against Zwonitzer as another chapter in Republicans’ failed impeachment inquiry.
“You’re just screwing around now on the margins with this batting practice, exhibition, preseason game-like exercise,” Swalwell said, “because you’re not ready for prime time.”
Swalwell and Bishop sparred over the impeachment inquiry as the Golden State lawmaker challenged his Republican colleagues to bring forward a motion to impeach President Biden.
“You guys have got nothing,” Swalwell said, “This is embarrassing.”
Republicans, though, were adamant that the information they said Zwonitzer was withholding would shed light on their investigation into the president.
“No legal or constitutional privilege protects the information subpoenaed from disclosure,” said Ohio Representative Jim Jordan, chair of the Judiciary Committee. “Mr. Zwonitzer has a legal obligation to turn over the requested materials pursuant to the subpoena — and his willful refusal to comply with our subpoena constitutes contempt of Congress.”
California Representative Tom McClintock pushed back on assertions that Republicans had rushed to contempt rather than first work with the White House.
“The House issued a legal subpoena over a legitimate and defined matter of legislative significance, and that subpoena has been ignored,” he said. “Our next recourse is to hold the individual in contempt and refer the matter to the Department of Justice. That’s the appropriate response.”
Meanwhile, the White House earlier this week informed Zwonitzer’s attorney that he was not allowed to provide any of the information requested by the Judiciary Committee until it had been reviewed for “executive branch confidentiality concerns.”
By demanding Zwonitzer provide the requested information instead of engaging with the executive branch, White House counsel Edward Siskel told Zwonitzer’s lawyer in a Tuesday letter, the Judiciary Committee was attempting to “sidestep” its constitutional requirements.
If the resolution is referred to the full House and approved, it will be the second time in recent weeks that House Republicans have held someone in contempt of Congress related to the Biden classified documents investigation.
As of Thursday evening, it was unclear whether House leadership would take up the measure.
Lawmakers this month voted to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt over his refusal to provide audio recordings of special counsel Hur’s interviews with the president. The Department of Justice has said that it will not pursue charges against the cabinet official — prompting some Republicans to mount a last-ditch effort to detain Garland using an antiquated procedural mechanism known as inherent contempt.
In his February report, which has become central to the GOP’s efforts to bring down President Biden, special counsel Hur did not recommend charges against the president for his conduct. Hur reasoned that, if the case ever went to trial, a jury would view Biden as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
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