DOJ refuses to fork over audio of Biden’s interview with special counsel, despite contempt

The Justice Department bucked its Monday deadline related to a subpoena demand from two Republican-led House committees for audio of President Biden’s interview with former special counsel Robert Hur.

While underscoring the DOJ’s efforts to comply with congressional requests, the department contended that sending over the audio is unnecessary and could jeopardize future investigations.

“The Committees have already received the extraordinary accommodation of the transcripts,” Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte wrote in a letter to the chairmen of the two committees.

“To go further by producing the audio files would compound the likelihood that future prosecutors will be unable to secure this level of cooperation. They might have a harder time obtaining consent to an interview at all.”

“Our productions on each of the four subpoena items have met or exceeded the Committees’ stated informational needs,” Uriarte stressed. “Yet the Committees have responded with escalation and threats of criminal contempt.”

“We are therefore concerned that the Committees are disappointed not because you didn’t receive
information, but because you did. We urge the Committees to avoid conflict rather than seek it,” he added.

The DOJ turned over a transcript of Hur’s interview with Zwonitzer alongside its letter that stiffed Comer and Jordan on the audio demand.

Specific items that Comer and Jordan sought from the DOJ included “records, including transcripts, notes, video, and audio files, related to Special Counsel Robert Hur’s investigation.”

Uriarte underscored that the DOJ had been trying to accommodate congressional requests as much as possible.

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