House Judiciary Committee Sues Merrick Garland for Audio of Biden Special Counsel Interview

On Monday, the House Judiciary Committee announced its intentions to sue Attorney General Merrick Garland in order to finally release the audio of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s interview with Joe Biden.

As reported by Fox News, the lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. In its filing, the committee emphasized the importance of the “verbal and non-verbal context” of Biden’s answers to Hur’s questions, including long pauses, stutters, and repetitions of previous answers. Hur ultimately declined to charge Biden largely due to his belief that a jury would view him as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

Although an edited transcript of the interview was released, the audio itself has remained under lock and key, especially after Biden claimed executive privilege over the recordings. The committee argues that this claim “lacks any merit,” and demands that the court overrule Biden’s privilege and force the Department of Justice (DOJ) to hand over the audio to the committee.

“This dispute is about a frivolous assertion of executive privilege,” the lawsuit reads.

The lawsuit is part of the broader ongoing impeachment inquiry against Biden by multiple House committees. As part of that investigation, the Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena against Garland in order to obtain the materials that have not yet been released regarding Hur’s investigation. Hur interviewed Biden, along with his ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer, as part of his investigation into Biden’s illegal possession and mishandling of classified documents.

But to this day, the committee says, Garland “has refused to produce the audio recordings of the Special Counsel’s interviews with President Biden and Mr. Zwonitzer.”

“Instead, Attorney General Garland asked that President Biden assert executive privilege over those recordings, and President Biden complied with that request,” the lawsuit adds.

The renewed push for the recordings comes after Biden’s disastrous performance in his first debate against former President Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 election. Frequently pausing, stammering, and giving incoherent answers, Biden’s performance has been called the worst in the history of televised presidential debates. Following the debate, many prominent Democratic commentators called on Biden to drop out and urged the Democratic Party to pick a replacement candidate at the Democratic National Convention in August.