The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee filed a lawsuit against Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday demanding that a court order the Justice Department to release the audio recording of special counsel Robert Hur‘s interview with President Joe Biden.
The lawsuit also demands the DOJ provide recordings of an interview that Hur conducted with Biden’s ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer. The next step in the process will be for the Justice Department to file a response to the lawsuit.
“The Department is reviewing the lawsuit and will respond in court at the appropriate time,” a DOJ spokesperson said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
The House voted to hold Garland in contempt of Congress in June, sending a criminal referral to the DOJ. However, the department declined to explore criminal charges against its leader, angering House Republicans who said they would take the matter to court.
Garland was held in contempt after he rejected a subpoena from House Republicans in February to provide access to the audio recordings. The DOJ has already published the full transcripts of those interviews, arguing they are sufficient for Republicans’ impeachment inquiry. The White House has also cited executive privilege.
Republicans have insisted that the audio recording is necessary to assess the integrity of Hur’s investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents. Though the president’s conduct posed “serious risks to national security,” Hur said in his report that he did not charge Biden because he believed a jury would find him a “sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory” and likely not convict him for this reason.
In the lawsuit, the Judiciary Committee is asking the court to overrule the “frivolous” and “self-serving” assertion of executive privilege, arguing that the audio recording would allow committee members to determine the way Biden “presented himself during the interview” — including voice inflection, tone, and pace of speech.
“The audio recordings, not the cold transcripts, are the best available evidence of how President Biden presented himself during the interview,” the lawsuit said. “The Committee thus needs those recordings to assess the Special Counsel’s characterization of the President, which he and White House lawyers have forcefully disputed, and ultimate recommendation that President Biden should not be prosecuted.”
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House Democrats have blasted Republicans for politicizing the issue and wanting the audio recording for “Donald Trump’s campaign commercials” or to use Biden’s stutter to “smear” him.
The lower chamber has floated a vote on an “inherent contempt” resolution led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) as another pathway toward obtaining the recording. Some GOP lawmakers have called her measure unnecessary, while others believed it would pass if brought to the floor. However, because the House is in recess this week, it is likely a vote on Luna’s resolution will not come anytime soon, if at all.
