Releasing the audio recording of Joe Biden’s clumsy interview with special counsel Robert Hur would make false accounts more credible, the Justice Department said.
The White House is waging a rearguard action to keep the tape secret after Hur described the president as an “old man with a bad memory” during his investigation into the mishandling of classified documents.
A transcript revealed that the president forgot the year his son Beau died, when Trump was elected, and said “I don’t remember,” “I don’t remember,” and “I don’t have a damn idea” more than 100 times while doing crack. jokes and car noises.
The Justice Department admitted that there is more than enough audio from the two men to create an AI version of the interview, but argued that publishing the genuine article would make it more likely.
“If the audio recording is released, it is easy to foresee that it could be improperly altered and that the altered file could be passed off as an authentic recording and widely distributed,” Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer wrote in a court filing Friday.
Republicans have seized on a line from special counsel Robert Hur’s report on the president’s mishandling of classified documents that claimed Biden appeared to be an “old man with a bad memory.”
Hur stopped short of pressing charges, believing a jury would not convict the president: “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.” , he explained.
“The passage of time and advances in audio, artificial intelligence and deep fake technologies only amplify concerns about malicious manipulation of audio files.”
Hur was appointed to investigate the “possible unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents” in January of last year after classified documents from Biden’s vice presidency were found at the Penn Biden think tank in DC and in the home’s garage. of Biden in Wilmington, Delaware.
“We have identified evidence that the president intentionally withheld classified material after the end of his vice presidency, when he was a private citizen,” Hur concluded.
But did not press chargesbelieving that a jury would not convict the president.
“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,” he explained.
‘I knew this so that my position was credible. He couldn’t just announce that there would be no charges, he needed to explain why. I needed to show my work.’
The House Oversight and Judiciary committees voted to hold Attorney General Mercik Garland in contempt for his refusal to comply with subpoenas for audio of Biden’s five-hour interview with Hur.
Biden was outraged by Hur’s testimony and the release of the transcript, and later compounded his embarrassment with the rebuttable claim that Hur had raised the issue of Beau’s death when it was actually the president himself.
The president has claimed executive privilege in his attempt to keep the tape secret, and the Justice Department warned about the dangers of AI manipulation in response to a legal challenge over it.
The Republican-led House Oversight and Judiciary committees voted to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for his refusal to comply with audio subpoenas.
This image, contained in special counsel Robert Hur’s report, shows a damaged box where classified documents were found in President Joe Biden’s garage in Wilmington, Delaware, during a search by the FBI on December 21, 2022.
Notebooks were also confiscated from under a printer in Biden’s first-floor Wilmington headquarters.
Some were shocked by the casual way the secret documents were left in broken boxes.
Weinsheimer said its release would “make it much more likely that malicious actors could pass off a deepfake as an authentic recording.”
Republicans have speculated that the released transcript may have been edited to cover up even more gaffes and have vowed to keep up the pressure for the audio version.
“President Biden apparently fears that the citizens of this country and everyone will listen to those tapes,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said last month.
“They obviously confirm what the special counsel has discovered and would likely cause, in his estimation, such alarm among the American people that the president is using all his power to suppress their release.”