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Special Counsel Robert Hur testified before the House Judiciary Committee earlier this year.
CNN
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President Joe Biden claimed executive privilege over a recording of his meeting with special counsel Robert Hur, according to a letter from the White House and Justice Department to House Republicans.
Republican lawmakers had previously subpoenaed audio recordings of Mr. Biden’s interviews, as well as ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer and other materials obtained from Mr. Xu’s investigation into Mr. Biden’s handling of classified information. The House Oversight and Judiciary Committees will begin proceedings Thursday to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for failing to respond to those subpoenas.
“Due to the President’s long-standing commitment to protecting the integrity, effectiveness, and independence of Department of Justice and law enforcement investigations, the President has decided to assert executive privilege over the recordings,” White House Counsel Edward Mr. Siskel sent a letter to House Oversight Committee Chairman James. Comer and House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan.
The White House noted that the Justice Department has already provided records of the special counsel’s interviews with Biden and his ghostwriter, and has complied with other aspects of the original subpoena from the Republicans.
Mr. Siskel accused Republicans of trying to distort the recordings and criticized them for pursuing prosecutors with whom they disagree.
“The lack of a legitimate need for audio recordings exposes the likely goal of mutilating, distorting, and using audio recordings for partisan political purposes,” Siskel wrote.
Given the White House’s claim of executive privilege, the Justice Department asked House Republicans to halt a planned contempt lawsuit.
“Given the information we now have, the committee should not proceed with contempt and should avoid unnecessary and unwarranted conflict,” said Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte of the Office of Legislative Affairs. Ta.
Uriarte also defended the need to protect the audio tapes, saying, “We believe that the release of subpoena audio recordings will harm future law enforcement efforts and that the Commission’s continued requests are “We have repeatedly made it clear that this raises serious concerns about separation.”
Transcripts of two days of meetings between Mr. Hsu’s team and Mr. Biden were released in March ahead of Mr. Hsu’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.
Mr. Xu did not recommend charges against Mr. Biden in his report, and said in an interview that the president came across as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, older man with a poor memory.”
CNN filed a lawsuit in April seeking access to a recording of Biden’s interview.
House Republicans have argued through subpoenas to the Justice Department that the audio recordings are critical to Biden’s impeachment inquiry, but the investigation remains stalled as the prospects of the probe leading to impeachment become increasingly slim. Without a narrow majority vote and no evidence of impeachable crimes, Republicans are now struggling with how to conclude the investigation and are considering ways to target other members of the Biden administration. I’m looking for something.
Republicans said in their contempt report that the Justice Department cannot determine what information would be helpful in the investigation, and that the nuances of language in the audio recordings are unique to the subject matter not reflected in the recordings. claimed to provide insight.
“The Constitution does not permit the executive branch to instruct Congress on how to conduct or monitor impeachment investigations,” the report states.
Meanwhile, the Republican Party said in its report that while interview transcripts reflect what was said, they do not “reflect important linguistic context, such as tone and tone, or nonverbal context, such as pause and pace of speech. ” he claims.
Republicans argue that such pauses and intonations “may indicate a witness’s ability to recall events or whether the person is intentionally giving evasive or unresponsive testimony to investigators.” ” he claims.
Republicans point to a recent example of a discrepancy between the president’s transcript and audio recording, including a speech last month in which Biden read teleprompter cues out loud during a speech that were not reflected in the recording of the event. However, he said that it was not reflected in his speech. First transcript of his remarks.
The House Oversight Committee has delayed the start of Thursday’s raise to allow Republican members to attend former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York City, two sources familiar with the plan told CNN. .
Asked for comment on the reason for the schedule change, a spokesperson for the oversight board told CNN: “Due to conflicts with members’ schedules, markup will begin at a different time to accommodate members’ schedules. It became,” he said.
This article and heading have been updated with additional developments.
