On Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee voted to advance contempt proceedings against Attorney General Merrick Garland over his refusal to hand over audio recordings of Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur. The move came shortly after Biden invoked executive privilege to block the tapes from being released. The House Judiciary Committee began preparing to hold Garland in contempt earlier this month.
House Republicans have demanded the interview audio tapes for months, arguing that the recordings could reveal more about Hur’s conclusions regarding Biden’s mental faculties. DOJ officials have countered that the Republicans’ request for the audio is unjustified, noting that the complete interview transcript has already been made public. However, the Republicans contend in their report that although the transcripts reflect what Biden said, “they do not reflect important verbal context, such as tone or tenor, or nonverbal context, such as pauses or pace of delivery.”
Hur interviewed Biden last year over allegations of mishandling classified documents. Although Hur ultimately decided not to press charges against Biden, his final report described the octogenarian president as an “elderly man with poor memory.
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