House Republicans sue Garland over audio of Biden interviews with special counsel
Republicans in the House of Representatives on Monday a federal lawsuit filed against Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, asking a judge to force him to turn over audio recordings of President Biden’s interview with the special counsel who asked questions about his age and memory.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the House Judiciary Committee in the U.S. District Court in Washington, seeks recordings of interviews the special counsel, Robert K. Hur, conducted with Mr. Biden and Mark Zwonitzer, a ghostwriter, during the investigation into the president’s handling of classified documents.
In a February report, Mr Hur recommended against bringing criminal charges, but his description of Mr Biden as a “well-meaning, older man with a poor memory” and someone who had “declined abilities as he aged” reinforced concerns about how fit Mr Biden, now 81, is for the job.
The House Republicans’ lawsuit came just days after Biden’s halting performance in a televised presidential debate against former President Donald J. Trump — in which he gave unclear answers, repeatedly seemed to lose his thread and struggled to get his campaign message across — raised new questions about whether he should continue his campaign.
The Justice Department provided the Justice Committee with transcripts of the interviews, but not audio.
“Failure to require production of the audio recordings would impermissibly impede the Committee’s ability to exercise the House’s constitutionally delegated oversight and impeachment functions,” House General Counsel Matthew B. Berry wrote in the lawsuit.
Mr. Garland has opposed handing over the recordings, arguing that releasing the audio could set a precedent that would jeopardize the confidentiality of other law enforcement investigations. Democrats have also argued that Republicans have no legitimate legislative purpose in obtaining the audio, but only want to use edited clips to embarrass Mr. Biden in campaign ads.
Biden invoked his authority last month to deny House Republicans access to the recordings.
Mr Hur’s report said Mr. Biden’s memory was so hazy during five hours of interviews over two days, conducted when the president was 80, that it would be difficult to convince jurors that Mr. Biden knew his handling of the documents was wrong. Mr. Hur predicted in the report that if the president were to be charged, his lawyers would “emphasize these limitations in his recall.”
Republicans have grown increasingly frustrated over their failure to obtain the recordings as part of their long-running impeachment inquiry into Biden.
Last month, they voted to hold Mr. Garland in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a House subpoena, threatening the attorney general. But the Justice Department said it would not prosecute its own leader, leaving Republicans to devise strategies to target Mr. Garland in other ways.
Representative Anna Paulina Luna, Republican of Florida, is pushing for a quick vote to impeach Mr. Garland for “inherent contempt” of the House. If successful, the effort would prompt the House sergeant-at-arms to arrest the attorney general. But it is not clear whether Republicans have the votes to do so.
Republican leaders in the House of Representatives have indicated that they want to see if they can obtain the recordings through a lawsuit first.
Mr Garland has decried what he sees as politically motivated attacks by House Republicans on the Justice Department in retaliation for Mr Trump’s prosecutions.
In May, Mr. Garland spoke out against “a series of unprecedented and, frankly, unfounded attacks on the Justice Department,” including Republican efforts to defund the special counsel prosecuting Mr. Trump.
The Justice Department said Monday that it is reviewing the lawsuit and will respond to it in court.
