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The lawsuit also demands the DOJ to provide recordings of an interview that Hur conducted with Biden’s ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer. The next step in the process will be for the Justice Department to file a response to the lawsuit.in June, sending a criminal referral to the DOJ. However, the department declined to explore criminal charges against its leader, angering House Republicans who said they would take the matter to court.
Garland was held in contempt after he rejected a subpoena from House Republicans in February to provide access to the audio recordings. The DOJ has already published the full transcripts of those interviews, arguing they are sufficient for Republicans’ impeachment inquiry. The White House has also cited executive privilege.
Republicans have insisted that the audio recording is necessary to assess the integrity of Hur’s investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents. Though the president’s conduct posed “serious risks to ,” Hur said in his report that he did not charge Biden because he believed a jury would find him a “sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory” and likely not convict him for this reason.
In the lawsuit, the Judiciary Committee is asking the court to overrule the “frivolous” and “self-serving” assertion of executive privilege, arguing that the audio recording would allow committee members to determine the way Biden “presented himself during the interview” — including voice inflection, tone, and pace of speech.
“The audio recordings, not the cold transcripts, are the best available evidence of how President Biden presented himself during the interview,” the lawsuit states. “The Committee thus needs those recordings to assess the Special Counsel’s characterization of the President, which he and White House lawyers have forcefully disputed, and ultimate recommendation that President Biden should not be prosecuted.
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