WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House on Thursday blocked the release of audio from the United States. President Joe Biden’s meeting with special counsel As for what to do with his classified documents, he claimed that Republicans in Congress only wanted to “chop up” the recordings and use them for political purposes.
Hours later, the House Judiciary Committee voted to move forward with the event. Attorney General Merrick Garland He held Congress in contempt for not turning over the record. A second vote by the House Oversight Committee was scheduled for later Thursday. But the timing of any action by the full House and whether U.S. prosecutors would act on the referral remained unclear.
“The department has a legal obligation to produce the materials requested pursuant to the subpoena,” Rep. Jim Jordan, the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said during the hearing. “Attorney General Garland’s willful refusal to respond to our subpoena is a contempt of Congress.”
Thursday’s events further intensify tensions between House Republicans and the Justice Department, setting the stage for another bitter battle between the two governments that is almost certain to spill over into the courts.
If House Republicans’ efforts against Garland are successful, he would become the third attorney general to be charged with contempt of Congress. The White House condemned Republicans in a letter earlier Thursday, dismissing their efforts to obtain the audio as purely political.
In a scathing letter to House Republicans ahead of schedule, White House Counsel Ed Siskel wrote, “The lack of a legitimate need for audio recordings means that they can be mutilated, distorted, and partisan. “The likely purpose of using it for political purposes has been exposed.”Both House committees vote to refer Garland to the Department of Justice Crime of contempt.
“It is inappropriate for the executive branch to request such sensitive and constitutionally protected law enforcement materials because it wishes to manipulate the information for potential political gain.” Siskel added.
In a separate letter released Thursday, Garland told Biden that the audio falls within executive privilege, which protects the president’s ability to obtain candid advice from his advisers without fear of immediate public disclosure and that it is not relevant to his official duties. Advised that confidential communications can be protected.
The attorney general told reporters that the Justice Department has made extraordinary efforts to provide the committee with information about Special Counsel Robert Hur’s investigation, including transcripts of interviews between Biden and Hur. He said he was doing it. But Garland said releasing the audio could jeopardize the sensitive and high-profile investigation ahead. Officials have suggested that handing over the tapes could raise concerns about future witnesses cooperating with the investigation.
Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters that the audio of President Biden’s special counsel meeting, which Republicans had requested, will not be released.
“This is a series of unprecedented and frankly baseless attacks on the Department of Justice,” Garland said. “This request, this effort to use contempt as a way to obtain confidential law enforcement files, is very recent.”
The Justice Department warned Congress that the contempt effort would create “unnecessary and unwarranted conflict,” and Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte said, “Officials asserting the president’s claims are is a long-standing position of the executive branch held by governments of both parties.” Executive privilege cannot be held in contempt of Congress. ”
Siskel’s letter to lawmakers will be submitted later. The uproar among Biden’s aides and the allies are finished Hur’s comment about Difficult election year highlights concerns about Biden’s age and mental acuity and how the potentially embarrassing moments of the lengthy interview could be exacerbated by the release or selective release of the audio. became.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson denounced the White House’s move, accusing Biden of suppressing the tape for fear of letting voters hear it in an election year.
“The American people need to hear why prosecutors decided that, in Special Counsel Robert Hur’s own words, the President of the United States is an ‘old man with a poor memory’ and therefore should not be indicted,” Johnson said. I won’t be able to do that,” he said. During a press conference on the House steps.
House Democrats defended Biden’s rationale in a series of hearings Thursday, citing extensive documents and witnesses provided to Republicans as part of the more than year-long investigation into Biden and his family.
Rep. Jerry Nadler, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said Thursday that Republicans want to make it look like they have exposed wrongdoing at the Justice Department.
“Indeed, the Attorney General and the Department of Justice have been fully responsive to this committee in all ways that could be important to the long-silent impeachment inquiry,” the New York congressman said. “In my opinion, given the MAGA majority’s obvious malice, they sometimes overreact.”
Democrats see the contempt effort as a last-ditch effort to keep the Republican impeachment inquiry into Biden alive, despite a series of setbacks in recent months and wavering support for articles of impeachment within the Republican conference. .
transcription of Her interview Mr. Biden has shown that he has trouble remembering some dates and occasionally confuses some details, something longtime aides say Mr. Biden has done for years in both public and private life. ) but show deep memory in other areas. Mr. Biden and his aides are particularly sensitive to questions about age. He is 81 years old. oldest president in historyand he is seeking another four-year term.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said at a press conference that the American people will not be able to hear the president’s special counsel conference.
Hmm, Former Trump administration Justice Department officialHe was appointed special counsel in January 2023 after classified documents related to Biden were discovered in multiple locations.
Mr. Xu’s report He said many of the documents recovered at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, parts of Biden’s home in Delaware, and the Senate Archives at the University of Delaware had been “mistakenly” stored.
But investigators found evidence of intentional retention and disclosure related to some of the records found in Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, home, including in the garage, office and basement.
The files concern the Obama administration’s troop increase in Afghanistan, which Biden vehemently opposed. Mr. Biden kept records documenting his position, including a confidential letter he wrote to Mr. Obama during the 2009 Thanksgiving holiday. Some of that information was shared with a ghostwriter who published his memoirs in 2007 and 2017.
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Associated Press writers Zeke Miller and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed.
