White House blocks Republican demands for audio of Biden’s special council interview
- Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur is at the centre of a Republican effort to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress
- The transcript of the Hur interview showed Biden struggling to recall some dates and occasionally confusing some details – something aides says he’s done for years
President Joe Biden on Thursday moved to block Republicans in the US House of Representatives from obtaining audio recordings of his interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur over his retention of classified records.
In a letter to the chairmen of the House of Representatives Judiciary and Oversight committees, the Justice Department said Biden had asserted executive privilege, a legal doctrine that shields certain executive branch records from disclosure.
The letter said that Biden was also asserting executive privilege over the audio recordings of Hur’s interview with his ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer.
It comes as the House Oversight and Accountability Committee and the Judiciary Committee are each expected to hold a hearing to recommend that the full House refer Attorney General Merrick Garland to the Justice Department for the contempt charges over the department’s refusal to hand over the audio.
Garland advised Biden in a letter on Thursday that the audio falls within the scope of executive privilege. Garland told the Democratic president that the “committee’s needs are plainly insufficient to outweigh the deleterious effects that the production of the recordings would have on the integrity and effectiveness of similar law enforcement investigations in the future.”
Assistant Attorney General Carlos Felipe Uriarte urged lawmakers not to proceed with the contempt effort to avoid “unnecessary and unwarranted conflict.”