The Department of Justice (DOJ) has declined to provide the House of Representatives with a recording of President Joe Biden’s interview with former special counsel Robert Hur.
Hur was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate Biden’s unlawful possession of classified government documents from his service as vice president and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee after leaving both positions. After Hur declined to recommend charges against Biden but released a report that suggested he had poor memory, House Republicans have demanded an audio recording of the interview, which the DOJ on Monday refused to submit, according to a letter it sent to the House House Judiciary Committee and Oversight and Accountability Committee. (RELATED: ‘Congenital Liars’: Legal Experts Say Democrats’ Spin About The Special Counsel’s Report On Biden Doesn’t Add Up)
“The Committees have already received the extraordinary accommodation of the transcripts, which gives you the information you say you need. To go further by producing the audio files would compound the likelihood that future prosecutors will be unable to secure this level of cooperation,” wrote Carlos Felipe Uriarte, the assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, in the letter denying the committees’ requests. “[Prosecutors] might have a harder time obtaining consent to an interview at all. It is clearly not in the public interest to render such cooperation with prosecutors and investigators less likely in the future.”
Read a copy of the letter here:
Letter to Jim Jordan and James Comer from DOJ AAG for Leg. Affairs Carlos Uriarte on April 8, 2024 by Daily Caller News Foundation on Scribd
The DOJ suggested that the committees do not have a legitimate purpose for requesting the information. “Although the Committees have pointed out, correctly, that the Constitution implicitly grants Congress ‘broad’ and “indispensable” authority to seek information when motivated by a legitimate investigative purpose, neither branch has any constitutionally-based authority to seek conflict for conflict’s sake,” wrote Uriarte.
The committees are reportedly considering initiating contempt proceedings against Garland should the recording not be provided, according to Axios. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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