Justice Department rejects House GOP bid to obtain audio of Biden interview with special counsel

Washington — The Justice Department has rejected a request from two Republican-led House committees to turn over an audio recording of a former special counsel. Robert Hur Interview with President Joe Biden.

The ministry said the committees failed to identify an “investigative purpose” for their request for audio and accused them of “escalation” and seeking conflict “for the sake of conflict,” according to a letter sent Monday to Presidents Jim Jordan and James Comer. and obtained by CBS News.

The House Judiciary and Oversight committees issued subpoenas for audio recording and other materials from the investigation — including transcripts of specific interviews — after Hur published his report in February over Mr. Biden’s handling of classified files from his tenure as vice president.

Hur’s year-long investigation began after documents with classified markings were found in Mr. Biden’s home and office. Hur chose not to pursue criminal charges in the case, but criticized the president’s record keeping and criticized the president’s memory during an October 2023 interview with investigators.

In his criticism of Mr. Biden’s conduct, Hur alleged that the then-former vice president “shared information, including classified information,” with a ghostwriter while writing his memoir. Prosecutors ultimately concluded that criminal charges were not the “appropriate remedy,” according to Hur’s report.

Hur, having completed his investigation and report, is no longer employed by the Justice Department, but the department still retains control of the evidence he gathered during the investigation and has previously provided the committees with a transcript full version of Mr. Biden’s interview with Hur and his team.

And although the Justice Department also provided congressional investigators with the transcript of the ghostwriter’s interview with prosecutors, according to Monday’s letter, it failed to meet Monday’s deadline to turn over the audio recording of the two days of presidential sitting starting in October.

“(It) is critical that the Department understand why the committees believe they still need the information contained in these records,” Assistant Attorney General Carolos Uriarte wrote in his letter.

He wrote that the Justice Department had “worked diligently” to respond to Congress’ requests and argued that through those efforts, the committees had already “received an extraordinary amount of information — and quickly.”

Uriarte said the Justice Department was “concerned” that Jordan and Comer’s requests for the audio version of the interview – although they had already reviewed a transcript – were intended to “serve political purposes who should play no role in the processing of law enforcement files.

Disclosure of the audio files to Congress, he wrote Monday, risked “crippling” future investigations if witnesses feared that audio versions of their interviews would be released.

When they issued the subpoenas in February, congressional Republicans said they needed access to all requested documents, such as the audio recording, to oversee Hur’s investigation and further evaluate the conduct of Mr. Biden.

They then accused federal officials of withholding relevant information and threatened Attorney General Merrick Garland with contempt proceedings.

CBS News has reached out to the relevant committees for further comment on the Justice Department’s letter. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.

Hur alleged in his report that near the start of his federal investigation, the ghostwriter deleted audio files related to the classified information Mr. Biden is accused of sharing with him. “The recordings had significant probative value,” the report said. But the FBI managed to recover the deleted files from the ghostwriter’s computer. The government considered charging the Negro with obstruction, but ultimately decided against it, based on its findings.

The former special adviser’s description of Mr. Biden’s memory sparked an outcry from the president and his allies. Mr. Biden rebuffed shortly after the report was released, saying his memory was “good.”

THE transcript of Hur’s October interview with Mr. Biden was released shortly before Hur testified before Congress last month and provided a fuller picture of the five-hour conversation. Although Mr. Biden stumbled over some dates and struggled to find several words, he also recalled many specific details from years earlier.