Testifying in front of the House Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill Tuesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland doubled down on his refusal to release the audio interview conducted by former Special Counsel Robert Hur with President Joe Biden. The interview took place during Hur's investigation of Biden's mishandling of classified information after leaving the U.S. Senate and again when he left the vice presidency.
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— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) June 4, 2024
“The issue that we have here, you don't want to give us the audiotape.
“You don't want us to have the recording.
“But ultimately, the issue is whether the transcript actually supports the special counsel's determination.” pic.twitter.com/X78Jdd9WSI
The transcript of the interview was released in February by DOJ, but the audio version remains under seal. DOJ claims it cannot be released because Biden's voice could be used to produce deep-fakes. Republicans are working to force DOJ to turn it over to congressional committees and investigators for reconciliation with the transcript.
Attorney General Merrick Garland just repeatedly his pledge not to release the audiotape of the Biden-Hur interview. Notably, he did not repeat the absurd claim to a type of Deepfake Privilege made in court. https://t.co/wl3URFy5a0
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) June 4, 2024
At the conclusion of Hur's investigation and despite investigators finding he did in fact mishandle classified information after exiting the U.S. Senate and the vice presidency, Biden was not charged due to poor memory and his age.
"Our investigation uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen. These materials included (1) marked classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, and (2) notebooks containing Mr. Biden's handwritten entries about issues of national security and foreign policy implicating sensitive intelligence sources and methods. FBI agents recovered these materials from the garage, offices, and basement den in Mr. Biden's Wilmington, Delaware home," the report states.
"We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during out interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory," the report continues. "Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — by then a former president well into his eighties — of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness."
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