Christian Smith
President Joe Biden, right, seated next to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, left, speaks at the start of his meeting with Combatant Commanders in the White House Cabinet Room in Washington, Wednesday, May 15, 2024 , before welcoming them for dinner. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden asserted executive privilege over audio of his interview with special counsel Robert Hur, who is at the center of a Republican effort to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland accountable for disrespecting Congress, the Department of Justice said. Justice to lawmakers on Thursday.
This comes as the House Oversight and Accountability Committee and the Judiciary Committee are expected to hold a hearing to recommend that the full House refer Garland to the Justice Department on contempt charges over the department’s refusal to turn over the audio.
Garland informed Biden in a letter on Thursday that the audio falls within the scope of executive privilege. Garland told the Democratic chairman that “the needs of the committee are clearly insufficient to offset the deleterious effects that production of the recordings would have on the integrity and effectiveness of similar police investigations in the future.”
Deputy Attorney General Carlos Felipe Uriarte urged lawmakers not to pursue the contempt effort to avoid “unnecessary and unjustified conflicts.”
“It is a long-standing position of the executive branch, held by administrations of both parties, that an official who asserts the president’s claim to executive privilege cannot be held in contempt of Congress,” Uriarte wrote.
White House counsel Ed Siskel wrote in a separate, scathing letter to Congress on Thursday that lawmakers’ effort to obtain the recording was absent any legitimate purpose and lays out its likely goal — “to cut them out, distort them, them and use them for partisan purposes.” political purposes.”
The White House letter is a tacit admission that there are moments in the interview that fear portraying Biden in a negative light in an election year — and this could be exacerbated by the release, or selective release, of the audio.
The transcript of Hur’s interview showed Biden struggling to remember some dates and occasionally confusing details — something longtime aides say he has done for years, both in public and private — but otherwise showing deep recollection in other areas. Biden and his aides are particularly sensitive to questions about his age. At 81, he is the oldest president ever and is seeking another four-year term.
Hur found some evidence that Biden intentionally withheld confidential information and disclosed it to a ghostwriter, but concluded it was insufficient for criminal charges.
