The Justice Department bucked its Monday deadline related to a subpoena demand from two Republican-led House committees for audio of President Biden’s interview with former special counsel Robert Hur.
While underscoring the DOJ’s efforts to comply with congressional requests, the department contended that sending over the audio is unnecessary and could jeopardize future investigations.
“The Committees have already received the extraordinary accommodation of the transcripts,” Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte wrote in a letter to the chairmen of the two committees.
“To go further by producing the audio files would compound the likelihood that future prosecutors will be unable to secure this level of cooperation. They might have a harder time obtaining consent to an interview at all.”
In late February, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) subpoenaed for audio files related to the Biden investigation.
Last month, they threatened to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress if the DOJ failed to produce audio of the interview with Biden, 81, and his ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer.
They gave the DOJ until noon April 8 to cough up that material.
“Our productions on each of the four subpoena items have met or exceeded the Committees’ stated informational needs,” Uriarte stressed. “Yet the Committees have responded with escalation and threats of criminal contempt.”
“We are therefore concerned that the Committees are disappointed not because you didn’t receive
information, but because you did. We urge the Committees to avoid conflict rather than seek it,” he added.
The DOJ turned over a transcript of Hur’s interview with Zwonitzer alongside its letter that stiffed Comer and Jordan on the audio demand.
Hur, a former Trump-appointed US attorney for the District of Maryland, had submitted his findings about Biden’s handling of classified information in early February and concluded his tenure as special counsel.
His 388-page bombshell report noted there was evidence that Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials,” but his team concluded there wasn’t enough to prove it “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Therefore, he didn’t press charges.
Among the reasons, Hur claimed the evidence came up short due to his concerns that a jury would perceive the octogenarian as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
Hur’s report kicked up a firestorm about Biden’s age, giving Republicans ample political fodder.
The former special counsel testified about his findings before the Judiciary Committee last month.
Shortly before that hearing, the DOJ furnished the transcript of Biden’s roughly five-hour interview conducted with Hur last fall to Congress.
Specific items that Comer and Jordan sought from the DOJ included “records, including transcripts, notes, video, and audio files, related to Special Counsel Robert Hur’s investigation.”
Uriarte underscored that the DOJ had been trying to accommodate congressional requests as much as possible.
“The Department produced Special Counsel Hur’s report to Congress so quickly that the Committees did not even have to ask for it,” he wrote. “There were no additional redactions for the Committees to demand that the Department lift.”
“There was no dispute between the Department or the Committees over whether Mr. Hur would testify—he readily agreed.”
He also insisted that “the Committees not disseminate or otherwise disclose the documents or information therein without prior consultation” of DOJ officials.
The Post contacted spokespeople for Comer and Jordan for comment.
Both the Judiciary and Oversight committees are part of a three-panel impeachment inquiry into Biden. The House Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Jason Smith (R-Mo.), is the third panel.
Leaders of the impeachment probe have made it clear they view Biden’s classified document saga as a key piece of their overall investigation.
They are expected to consider making criminal referrals over the coming months.
Former President Donald Trump, 77, is facing 40 criminal counts for his alleged hoarding of sensitive national security documents. He has pleaded not guilty.
