Biden BLOCKS release of special counsel audio tapes
The House Judiciary Committee voted to hold Attorney General MerrickGarland in contempt of Congress on Thursday.
The vote came after President Biden asserted executive privilegeover the audio tapes of his interview with ex-special counsel Robert Hur in amove to shield Garland from criminal charges.
The Oversight Committee will vote on holding Garland in contempt onThursday evening.
'We have gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure that a committees getresponses to their legitimate requests, but this is not one,' Garland toldreporters ahead of a hearing to advance his contempt charge.
Oversight Chair James Comer shot back to the assertion: 'The White House is asserting privilege over the recordings, but it has already waived privilege by releasing the transcript of the interview.
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House Republicans have fired off a new subpoena for bank records ofSarah, James and Hunter Biden . 'This is a result of many of the documents thatDevon Archer turned over,' Oversight Chair James Comer said on Fox Business,referring to Hunter's ex-business partner who has sat for interviews with thecommittee twice.©Provided by Daily Mail
'Today's Hail Mary from the White House changes nothing for thecommittee.'
Both Oversight and Judiciary will hold Garland in contempt for their ownseparate subpoenas.
Comer and Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan issued subpoenas to Garland forthe audio of ex-special counsel Robert Hur'sinterview with Biden. They say Garland refused to comply with either subpoena,so both committees will move to hold him in contempt.
SHAPE \* MERGEFORMAT Related video: BidenAsserts Executive Privilege Over Audio of Interview With RobertHur (Dailymotion)
'There have been a series of unprecedented and frankly, unfoundedattacks on the Justice Department. This request, this effort to use contempt asa method of obtaining our sensitive law enforcement files is just the mostrecent the effort to threaten to defund our investigations, and the way inwhich there are contributions through an atmosphere that puts our agents andour prosecutors at risk. These are wrong,' Garland said on Thursday.
The Justice Department says that it has been 'extraordinarily' accommodatingto the Republicans' requests for information. It has handed over a transcriptof the interview, but not the recording itself.
'There must be consequences for refusing to comply with lawfulcongressional subpoenas and we will move to hold Attorney General Garland incontempt of Congress,' Comer said in a statement to DailyMail.com Monday.
'These audio recordings are important to our investigation of PresidentBiden’s willful retention of classified documents and his fitness to bePresident of the United States.'
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President Biden hasasserted executive privilege over the audio tapes of his interview withex-special counsel Robert Hur in a move to shield Attorney General fromcriminal charges as Republicans move to hold him in contempt© Provided byDaily Mail
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A pair ofRepublican-led House committees will advance resolutions to hold AttorneyGeneral Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress on Thursday, DailyMail.com haslearned© Provided by Daily Mail
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Both OversightChairman James Comer (above) and Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan issued subpoenasto Garland for the audio of ex-special counsel Robert Hur's interview withBiden© Provided by Daily Mail
The attorney general had until April 8 to hand over requested materialsfrom Robert Hur's interviews with Biden that led him to conclude the presidentis 'elderly' and 'well-meaning' but has a'poor memory.'
They subpoenaed transcripts, notes, audio and video files largelyrelated to Hur's interview.
While the DOJ has handed over transcripts of Hur's interviews with Bidenas well as the transcripts of an interview with Biden's ghostwriter MarkZwonitzer, Republicans are unsatisfied.
They have insisted they need audio from the Hur and Zwonitzer interviewstoo.
They said releasing audio as well might make it harder for prosecutorsto secure recorded interviews in the future, with witnesses knowing they couldbe blasted out into the public.
'The Committees have already received the extraordinary accommodation ofthe transcripts, which gives you the information you say you need,' the letter,written by assistant attorney general Carlos Uriarte, read.
'To go further by producing the audio files would compound thelikelihood that future prosecutors will be unable to secure this level ofcooperation. They might have a harder time obtaining consent to an interview atall. It is clearly not in the public interest to render such cooperation withprosecutors and investigators less likely in the future.'
The letter said that the Oversight and Judiciary committees have notidentified any valid reasoning for needing the audio of the interview inaddition to transcripts.
Still, the GOP disagreed.
Comer clapped back in a statement: 'The Biden Administration does notget to determine what Congress needs and does not need for its oversight of theexecutive branch.'
Hur, in a report explaining his decision not to prosecute Biden overmishandling classified documents, sparked opposition from all sides - Republicanswho questioned why he would not charge the president and Democrats who tookissue with his description of Biden as a 'sympathetic, well-meaning, elderlyman with a poor memory.'
'The February 27 subpoenas create a legal obligation on you to producethis material,' the GOP lawmakers wrote to Garland. 'If you fail to do so, theCommittees will consider taking further action, such as the invocation ofcontempt of Congress proceedings.'
The Justice Department has only said it is conducting an 'interagencyreview' for classified and confidential information within the material.
Hur said he found that Biden had 'willfully' retained classifiedmaterial but stopped short of filing charges, believing a jury would notconvict the president.
He explained his decision to make the assessment in the hearing: 'I knewthat for my position to be credible. I could not simply announce that therewould be no charges, I needed to explain why. I needed to show my work.'
'We identified evidence that the President willfully retained classifiedmaterials 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 became muddled about the dateshe was vice president and could not even remember the year in which his sonBeau died, according to the transcript reviewed by DailyMail.com.
Biden forgot the year Beau died, when Trump was elected and said 'Idon't recall', 'I don't remember' and 'I have no goddamn idea' more than 100times while cracking jokes and making car noises with the investigators.
And it said his cavalier attitude to classified documents, such as hishabit of reading sensitive files to a ghostwriter, posed a significant nationalsecurity risk.
One of the reasons they decided not to press charges was because 'attrial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during ourinterview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poormemory.'
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This image,contained in the report from special counsel Robert Hur, shows a damaged boxwhere classified documents were found in the garage of President Joe Biden inWilmington, Del., during a search by the FBI on Dec. 21, 2022© Provided byDaily Mail
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Close-up shot ofdamaged box containing Biden's classified documents © Provided byDaily Mail
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This image,contained in the report from special counsel Robert Hur, shows notebooks in afile cabinet under a printer that were seized in first-floor home office ofPresident Joe Biden in Wilmington, Del., on Jan. 20, 2023, during a search byFBI agents© Provided by Daily Mail
Hur said during testimony that he described Biden this way because ofhis 'inability to recall certain things' and that he had to be prompted by hislawyers to recall certain dates.
According to transcripts of Hur's interviews with Biden on October 8 andOctober 9, 2023, Biden's lawyer had to tell him what year his son Beau died ofbrain cancer and the president jokedabout the special counsel finding pictures of his wife Jill in a swimsuit.
I just hope you didn’t find any risqué pictures of my wife in a bathingsuit. Which you probably did. She’s beautiful,' said Biden.
'What month did Beau die?' Biden mused at one point, adding, 'Oh God,May 30th.'
'He did not remember,even within several years, when his son Beau died. And hismemory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once soimportant to him,' Hur said.
A White House lawyer then chimed in with the year, 2015.
'Was it 2015 he died?' Biden asked.
