The rules for the 119th Congress, which will be approved by lawmakers after they are sworn in Friday, will authorize the House Judiciary Committee to issue a number of subpoenas for interviews that were thwarted when Biden was in office. Among those is a subpoena for Attorney General Merrick Garland related to special counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents while he was vice president. 

CAPITOL’S NEW CROP: THE FRESH FACES OF THE HOUSE IN THE 119TH CONGRESS

The Judiciary Committee sought to hold Garland in contempt of Congress last year for withholding interview tapes between Hur and Biden’s memoir ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer, but that effort was blocked after Biden asserted executive privilege over the materials. Garland requested Biden to assert his privilege, arguing the committee’s request was “plainly insufficient to outweigh the deleterious effects that production of the recordings would have on the integrity and effectiveness of similar law enforcement investigations in the future.”

However, Republicans argued the tapes were necessary because Hur’s report “unequivocally stated” that Biden disclosed classified information to his ghostwriter “nearly verbatim, sometimes for an hour or more at a time” and “at least three times” during those interviews. 

Biden was not charged with his handling of classified documents after Hur declined to prosecute, in part because he thought a jury would find him to be “a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.”

The rules legislation will also allow the Judiciary Committee to subpoena Justice Department attorneys Mark Daly and Jack Morgan related to the department’s investigation into Hunter Biden. 

The committee worked for months to obtain testimony from the pair, but the DOJ repeatedly blocked those efforts, citing policies that the department does not permit line-level employees to testify, particularly about open matters such as the Hunter Biden case.

Republicans later sued Daly and Morgan, who were involved in the department’s prosecution of Hunter Biden, in March of last year, arguing the officials defied subpoenas by refusing to appear for depositions.

Lawmakers cited the House’s impeachment inquiry as the basis for their lawsuit, noting investigators were trying to determine whether Hunter Biden received preferential treatment from the department during its yearslong investigation of him. The attorneys noted that the House is also examining whether Joe Biden pressured the DOJ in any way to go easy on his son. 

House investigators believe Morgan and Daly could speak to this, though several higher-level DOJ officials have denied in interviews with the committee that politics influenced decision-making in the Hunter Biden case.

The House Oversight and Judiciary Committees spent two years investigating the Biden family in an attempt to impeach Joe Biden. The report was released earlier this year with little fanfare after lawmakers failed to uncover definitive evidence tying Joe Biden to criminal activity or any misconduct that constitutes a high crime or misdemeanor.

However, Republican members of the Judiciary Committee have indicated they want to bring Hunter Biden back for more testimony, noting that lawmakers could get information they did not have previously. Because Joe Biden pardoned his son last year, Hunter Biden could be restricted in invoking his Fifth Amendment rights as he no longer faces criminal repercussions for federal crimes.

The proposals are included in the updated rules legislation released Wednesday, just two days before lawmakers are set to convene the 119th Congress. The House will meet Friday to elect a new speaker, after which the chamber will be sworn in and vote to approve the rules. Joe Biden leaves office on Jan. 20.