House Republicans Sue For Access To Audio Tapes Of Biden Classified Documents Probe Interview

 The GOP-led House Judiciary Committee sued Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday, requesting that a judge order the audio of President Joe Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur be released. 

Earlier this year, the Biden administration asserted executive privilege to block release of the audio of the two-day interview in which Hur pressed the president over his handling of classified documents. The lawsuit from the Judiciary Committee says Biden’s assertion of executive privilege is “frivolous” and the audio of the interviews is important for lawmaker’s inquiry into the Justice Department’s handling of the Biden documents investigation. 

“The Committee thus needs those recordings to assess the Special Counsel’s characterization of the President, which he and White House lawyers have forcefully disputed, and ultimate recommendation that President Biden should not be prosecuted,” the suit says.

Hur recommended no charges for Biden despite the fact he found Biden improperly retained classified documents while out of office, noting his team found that Biden struggled to remember the dates his son died or when he was vice president. 

A jury would view Biden, who is now 81, as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” Hur’s report concluded.

The House Judiciary Committee suit asks the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to overrule the assertion of executive privilege and make Garland produce the tapes. House lawmakers say the audio will provide important verbal and nonverbal context missing from the transcripts of the interview that have been made available. 

 

“That verbal and nonverbal context is quite important here because the Special Counsel relied on the way that President Biden presented himself during their interview — ’as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory’ — when ultimately recommending that President Biden should not be prosecuted for unlawfully retaining and disclosing classified information,” the suit says.

“The audio recordings, not the cold transcripts, are the best available evidence of how President Biden presented himself during the interview,” the suit adds. 

House Republicans previously voted to hold Garland in contempt over the tapes, but the DOJ declined to prosecute.