Republicans will move to charge Attorney General Merrick Garland with contempt of Congress, DailyMail.com has confirmed, after the Justice Department refused to hand over audio tapes of Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur.
The attorney general had until April 8 to deliver requested materials from Robert Hur’s interviews with Biden that led him to conclude that the president is “older” and “well-intentioned” but has a “bad memory.”
They requested transcripts, notes, audio and video files largely related to Hur’s interview.
While the Justice Department has turned over transcripts of Hur’s interviews with Biden, as well as the transcript and audio recordings of an interview with Biden’s ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer, Republicans are dissatisfied.
They have insisted that they also need the audio of Hur’s interview.
But almost a month after the deadline to submit the audio tapes passed, the House Judiciary Committee is now moving to charge Garland with contempt of Congress, DailyMail.com confirmed.
Republicans threatened Monday to charge Attorney General Merrick Garland with contempt of Congress if he does not turn over more materials in Robert Hur’s investigation into President Biden’s classified documents.
Hur said he discovered that Biden had “intentionally” withheld classified material, but stopped short of pressing charges, believing a jury would not convict the president.
The judiciary committee will hold a review of the contempt hearing on May 16.
However, the DOJ said in an April letter to the Republican Party committee chairs that the department had already been “extraordinarily” accommodating in turning over Biden’s transcript.
They said releasing audio could also make it difficult for prosecutors to obtain recorded interviews in the future, since witnesses know they could be released to the public.
‘The Committees have already received the extraordinary accommodation of the transcripts, which provides them with the information they say they need,’ reads the letter, written by Deputy Attorney General Carlos Uriarte.
‘Going further and presenting the audio files would increase the likelihood that future prosecutors will be unable to secure this level of cooperation. They may find it more difficult to obtain consent for an interview. It is clearly not in the public interest to make such cooperation with prosecutors and investigators less likely in the future.’
The letter said the Oversight and Judiciary committees have not identified any valid reasoning for needing audio of the interview in addition to the transcripts.
Still, the Republican Party disagreed.
Oversight Chairman James Comer responded in a statement: “The Biden administration cannot determine what Congress needs and does not need to oversee the executive branch.”
Special counsel Robert Hur testified before the Judiciary Committee about his report on President Joe Biden in March.
Hur, in a report explaining his decision not to prosecute Biden for mishandling classified documents, drew opposition from all sides: Republicans who questioned why he would not impeach the president and Democrats who took issue with his portrayal of Biden as a “understanding and knowledgeable.” that is, an old man with a bad memory.
“The February 27 subpoenas create a legal obligation for you to produce this material,” the Republican lawmakers wrote to Garland. “If he fails to do so, the committees will consider taking additional action, such as invoking the contempt of Congress process.”
The Justice Department has only said that it is conducting an “interagency review” of classified and confidential information contained in the material.
Hur said he discovered that Biden had “intentionally” withheld classified material, but stopped short of pressing charges, believing a jury would not convict the president.
He explained his decision to make the assessment at the hearing: ‘I knew it so that my position would be credible. He couldn’t just announce that there would be no charges, he needed to explain why. I needed to show my work.’
“We identified evidence that the president intentionally withheld classified materials after the end of his vice presidency, when he was a private citizen,” Hur said during a high-stakes hearing in April.
In interviews with investigators, Biden was confused about the dates he was vice president and couldn’t even remember the year his son Beau died, according to the transcript reviewed by DailyMail.com.
The circled box in the foreground contained documents about Afghanistan. The photograph was taken in December 2022 in Biden’s garage, with other household items.
Special prosecutor Robert Hur spent a year investigating files found in President Joe Biden’s home and former office. He said Biden’s status as president meant he could not be prosecuted.
Biden forgot the year Beau died, when Trump was elected, and said ‘I don’t remember,’ ‘I don’t remember,’ and ‘I have no idea’ more than 100 times while cracking jokes and making car noises with investigators. .
And he said his cavalier attitude toward classified documents, such as his habit of reading confidential files to a ghostwriter, posed a significant risk to national security.
One of the reasons they decided not to press charges was because “at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview, as a sympathetic, well-intentioned old man with a bad memory.” .’
Hur said during his testimony that he described Biden this way because of his “inability to remember certain things” and that his lawyers had to ask him to remember certain dates.
According to transcripts of Hur’s interviews with Biden on October 8 and 9, 2023, Biden’s lawyer had to tell him what year his son Beau died of brain cancer and the president joked about the special counsel finding photographs of his wife Jill in swimsuit.
I just hope you haven’t found any racy photos of my wife in a swimsuit. Which you probably did. She’s beautiful,” Biden said.
—What month did Beau die? Biden reflected at one point and added, “Oh God, May 30.”
‘He couldn’t remember, even after several years, when his son Beau died. And his memory seemed hazy as he described the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him,” Hur said.
A White House lawyer then weighed in with the year 2015.
‘Was it 2015 when he died?’ -Biden asked.
