The House Judiciary Committee filed a lawsuit Monday against Attorney General Merrick B. Garland over the Justice Department’s refusal to release audio of a special counsel interview with President Joe Biden.
The lawsuit from the Republican-controlled panel asks a federal court in Washington to issue an injunction ordering Garland to provide the audio recording of former special counsel Robert K. Hur’s interview with the president.
A transcript of Hur’s interview with Biden has been released but the president earlier this year invoked executive privilege over the audio.
“This dispute is principally about a frivolous assertion of executive privilege,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit is also asking the court to order Garland to produce audio of the special counsel’s interview with a ghostwriter who worked with Biden.
The committee contends in the lawsuit that the audio recordings are not covered by executive privilege and “even if they were, President Biden has waived that privilege.”
The lawsuit echoes Republican lawmaker contentions that audio recordings better reflect what happened, in part because they have “verbal and nonverbal context that is missing from a cold transcript.”
Hur’s report, released in February, described Biden’s memory as “significantly limited” in his interview with the special counsel’s office.
“The audio recordings, not the cold transcripts, are the best available evidence of how President Biden presented himself during the interview,” the lawsuit states. “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.”
The litigation is the latest attempt from House Republicans to get ahold of Hur’s interview with Biden, which was conducted as part of a probe into Biden’s handling of classified materials.
House Republicans held Garland in contempt of Congress last month over a subpoena dispute that centered on the Justice Department’s withholding of the Biden interview audio.
Conservatives say the audio is needed for congressional oversight while Democrats have slammed Republican efforts to get the recording, arguing the contempt effort was riddled with partisan motivations.
A contempt resolution recently filed by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., would fine Garland $10,000 a day until he complies with a congressional subpoenas for the recording. It’s unclear if the measure will receive a vote on the House floor.
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