The Justice Department will not develop subpoenaed audio recordings of former exclusive counsel Robert Hur’s job interview with President Biden to Residence Republicans, putting Attorney General Merrick Garland at chance of being held in contempt of Congress.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and Property Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, have threatened to maintain Garland in contempt of Congress over the Justice Department’s failure to produce the documents. Last month, they established Monday, April 8, as the deadline for Attorney Common Merrick Garland to comply.
The Justice Section did fulfill the GOP-imposed deadline to respond but notified lawmakers it would not be turning more than the audio data files.
“The Department is concerned that the Committees’ certain aim on continuing to need info that is cumulative of details we by now gave you — what the President and Mr. Hur’s team mentioned in the interview indicates that the Committees’ pursuits may not be in getting info in service of respectable oversight or investigatory functions, but to provide political purposes that really should have no purpose in the treatment of legislation enforcement information,” Assistant Legal professional General Carlos Uriarte wrote in a letter to Jordan and Comer Monday.
U.S. Lawyer Standard Merrick Garland speaks all through a meeting with U.S. Legal professional Damian Williams, not pictured, as effectively as federal, condition and regional law enforcement leaders, in New York Town on Nov. 27, 2023. (EDUARDO MUNOZ/POOL/AFP by means of Getty Photos)
The Justice Section did concur to convert over some other resources, these kinds of as a transcript of an interview with Mark Zwonitzer, Biden’s ghostwriter.
But Comer and Jordan last thirty day period warned Garland that if he did not convert about the audio recordings, the “committees will think about getting even further motion, these types of as the invocation of contempt of Congress proceedings.”
Residence Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., left, and Property Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. (Getty Photos)
Comer and Jordan subpoenaed the Justice Department for a transcript of Hur’s job interview with Biden and audio recordings.
Just hrs right before Hur was scheduled to testify publicly earlier this thirty day period, the DOJ developed to the committees two redacted transcripts of Hur’s interviews with Biden.
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The Justice Department did not, having said that, make the audio recordings of the interviews. Comer and Jordan stated the committees “specifically prioritized” the generation of people audio recordings.
In the meantime, Comer and Jordan subpoenaed Mark Zwonitzer very last month. The subpoena compels Zwonitzer to change more than all paperwork and communications with Biden or his workers associated to his ghostwriting operate on Biden’s memoirs “Assure Me, Father” and “Guarantees to Continue to keep,” which includes e-mail, simply call logs and a lot more.
The subpoena also compels Zwonitzer to turn above all contracts and agreements relevant to his do the job, along with audio recordings of interviews and discussions with Biden and transcripts of individuals discussions and interviews.
Distinctive counsel Robert Hur, remaining, testified to Congress about his investigation into President Biden’s categorised documents scandal. (Getty Visuals)
The president has claimed that he did not share categorized details with Zwonitzer, but Hur’s report, unveiled previous month, states that Biden would “browse from his notebooks nearly verbatim, at times for an hour or more at a time,” and “at least a few periods President Biden study labeled notes from countrywide security conferences” to Zwonitzer “just about verbatim.”
Hur testified before this month that Zwonitzer “slid” files of audio recordings and transcripts of discussions with Biden “into his recycle bin on his laptop” upon mastering that a special counsel experienced been appointed to look into the matter.
Jordan, all through Hur’s general public hearing previously this month, asked no matter if the ghostwriter attempted to “ruin the evidence.”
“Right,” Hur testified.
Hur, who launched his report to the public in February just after months of investigation, did not advocate prison costs towards Biden for mishandling and retaining categorized documents — and mentioned that he would not bring rates against Biden even if he ended up not in the Oval Workplace.
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All those information integrated categorised files about armed service and foreign plan in Afghanistan and other nations, among the other data relevant to countrywide safety and overseas plan, which Hur claimed implicated “sensitive intelligence sources and procedures.”
Hur, in his report, described Biden as a “sympathetic, well-which means elderly person with a bad memory” – a description that has lifted major problems for Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign.
