Justice Department rejects GOP demands for audio of Joe Biden, Robert Hur interview after bombshell report

WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice rejected requests from House Republicans for the audio recordings of special counsel Robert Hur’s interviews with President Joe Biden, with department officials balking at GOP lawmakers' threat to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress if they don't comply.

The Justice Department contended in a letter obtained by USA TODAY that it has already given House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio and House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., all the information the GOP needs and that the department has fully cooperated.

Their threat to hold Garland in contempt, Assistant Attorney General Carlos Felipe Uriarte wrote to Jordan and Comer on Monday, “is difficult to explain in terms of any lack of information" based "the Department’s actual conduct.”

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

Republicans have been pushing to obtain the audio of the interviews after Hur released a bombshell report earlier this year detailing Biden’s treatment of classified information. Hur ultimately concluded that Biden shouldn’t face criminal charges in part because of insufficient evidence and what his office called the president’s “poor memory.”

Biden sat for a two-day interview with Hur last year on his handling of the documents following his tenure as vice president.

Hur testified to the House Judiciary Committee in a marathon hearing in March and stood by his report’s findings. The Justice Department noted on Monday that, along with Hur’s testimony, “the Committees have received an extraordinary amount of information—and quickly.”

Jordan and Comer sent a letter to Garland in March saying that the DOJ’s provided redacted transcripts were “insufficient” and requesting the full, unredacted transcripts and audio files of Hur’s interviews with Biden and his ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer. The committee chairs gave the department until Monday to abide by their requests.

“If you fail to do so, the Committees will consider taking further action, such as the invocation of contempt of Congress proceedings,” the two wrote.

Along with the letter, the DOJ sent lawmakers the transcripts of Zwonitzer’s interviews with Hur “as a further accommodation” even though “it is not clear to the Department that the Committee has established an additional need for these transcripts.”

Republicans’ interests, the department accused in the letter, "may not be in receiving information in service of legitimate oversight or investigatory functions, but to serve political purposes that should have no role in the treatment of law enforcement files.”

Comer responded in a statement that "The Biden administration does not get to determine what Congress needs and does not need for it's oversight of the executive branch."

"The American people demand transparency from their leaders, not obstruction," Comer continued. "We will respond to the Justice Department soon."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: DOJ defies Republicans, will not give audio of Joe Biden interview