WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans threatened to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress if he did not turn over unredacted materials related to the special counsel probe into .
In a letter Monday — obtained by The Associated Press — Reps. James Comer and Jim Jordan demanded that Garland comply with the subpoena the two Republican chairmen sent last month as part of their emerging investigation into Special Counsel Robert Hur's decision not to charge the president.
Comer, chair of the Oversight Committee, and Jordan, chair of the Judiciary Committee, ordered the Justice Department to turn over the unredacted audio and transcripts of Hur's hourslong interviews with Biden and his ghostwriter by April 8.
“If you fail to do so, the Committees will consider taking further action, such as the invocation of contempt of Congress proceedings,” the two lawmakers wrote.
House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., speaks during the House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
The threat is the latest escalation between Republicans and the GOP-appointed federal prosecutor who appeared before lawmakers two weeks ago for a surrounding his 345-page report that questioned Biden’s age and mental competence but ultimately recommended no criminal charges for the 81-year-old president. Hur said that he found insufficient evidence to make a case that would stand up in court.
“What I wrote is what I believe the evidence shows, and what I expect jurors would perceive and believe,” Hur said. “I did not sanitize my explanation. Nor did I disparage the president unfairly.”
Despite his defense, Hur faced an onslaught of criticism from both sides of the aisle for the commentary in his report and the decision to withhold pressing charges against Biden.
Hours before his testimony, the Justice Department released a redacted transcript that provided a more nuanced picture of the roughly yearlong investigation, filling in some of the gaps left by Hur’s and Biden’s accounting of the exchanges.
Republicans, including Comer and Jordan, have insisted for the past year that unlike Biden, former President Donald Trump has been treated unfairly in his own Justice Department case for mishandling classified documents. During the hearing, GOP members reiterated that while Biden was let off the hook, Trump has been singled out and vilified, questioning if the facts of the two cases were all that different.
Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., called it a “glaring double standard.”
“Donald Trump’s being prosecuted for exactly the same act that you documented Joe Biden committed,” he told Hur.
However, there are major differences between the two probes. Biden’s team returned the documents after they were discovered, and the president cooperated with the investigation by voluntarily sitting for an interview and consenting to searches of his homes. Trump, by contrast, is accused of enlisting the help of aides and lawyers to conceal the documents from the government and seeking to have destroyed.
BRUSSELS (AP) — Germany on Friday accused Russian military agents of hacking the top echelons of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party and other sensitive government and industrial targets, and was joined by NATO and fellow European countries in warning that Russia’s cyberespionage would have consequences.
Relations between Russia and Germany were already tense, with Germany providing military support to Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Russian military cyber operators were behind the hacking of emails of the Social Democrats, the leading party in the governing coalition. Officials said they did so by exploiting Microsoft Outlook.
Officials described a hacking campaign that persisted for months.
The German Interior Ministry said in a statement that the hacking campaign began at least as early as March 2022 — a month after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine — with emails at Social Democrat party headquarters accessed beginning that December. It said German companies, including in the defense and aerospace sectors, as well as targets related to the war were also a focus.
The statement said international efforts led by the FBI shut down in late January a botnet of compromised network devices used by the Russian hackers — known as APT28 or Fancy Bear — in the cyberespionage scheme.
“Russian state hackers attacked Germany in cyberspace,” Baerbock said at a news conference in the Australian city of Adelaide. She attributed the hack to a unit of Russia's GRU military intelligence unit.
“This is absolutely intolerable and unacceptable and will have consequences,” she said, without specifying what they might be.
A separate German statement said the hacking occurred over “a relatively long period” and also targeted various unidentified German government authorities, foundations and associations. It said the Social Democrats' executive committee was targeted.
The Council of the EU and the Czech Foreign Ministry said Czechia's institutions have also been targeted by the same group. Both German and Czech officials said the GRU hackers leveraged a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook.
In a statement by the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, the bloc’s nations said they “strongly condemn the malicious cyber campaign" by Fancy Bear "against Germany and Czechia.”
The EU noted that it had previously imposed sanctions on individuals and entities associated with the group for targeting the German parliament in 2015. It said it will not tolerate the continuation of such attacks, particularly with EU elections upcoming in June.
NATO accused Fancy Bear of targeting “other national governmental entities, critical infrastructure operators and other entities across the Alliance," including in Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden.
“We are determined to employ the necessary capabilities in order to deter, defend against and counter the full spectrum of cyberthreats to support each other, including by considering coordinated responses,” said the North Atlantic Council, the principal political decision-making body within NATO.
Baerbock is visiting Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, with the trip focusing on security policy as China pushes for influence in the Pacific region.
“The defense cooperation between Germany and Australia is close and we would like to deepen it further and together expand it, because we are in a situation where we face similar threats,” said Baerbock, who is the first German foreign minister to visit Australia in 13 years.
Discussions between Baerbock and Australia counterpart Penny Wong centered on the conflict in Gaza. “I think we all understand that the only path out of this cycle of violence that we see in the Middle East at such great cost is one that ultimately ensures a two-state solution,” Wong said.
Associated Press Technology writer Frank Bajak in Boston, Karel Janicek in Prague, Stephen Graham in Berlin, Samuel Petrequin in Brussels and Foster Klug contributed to this report.
Germany's Minister for Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock, left, speaks with Lewis O'Brien, the oldest living Kaurna man, in Adelaide, Friday, May 3, 2024, during a ceremony to mark the return of four significant cultural heritage items to the Kaurna people from the collection of the Grassi Museum in Leipzig. (Michael Errey/Pool Photo via AP)
Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, center, poses with Lewis O'Brien, the oldest living Kaurna man, and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, left, in Adelaide, Friday, May 3, 2024, during a ceremony to mark the return of four significant cultural heritage items to the Kaurna people from the collection of the Grassi Museum in Leipzig. (Michael Errey/Pool Photo via AP)
Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, left, and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong arrive for a news conference in Adelaide, Friday, May 3, 2024. (Michael Errey/Pool Photo via AP)
Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, left, and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong attend a news conference in Adelaide, Friday, May 3, 2024. (Michael Errey/Pool Photo via AP)
Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock speaks in Adelaide, Friday, May 3, 2024, during a ceremony to mark the return of four significant cultural heritage items to the indigenous Kaurna people from the collection of the Grassi Museum in Leipzig. (Michael Errey/Pool Photo via AP)
