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Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday faces a deadline to hand over records of President Biden's special counsel interview, and may be held in contempt of Congress if he does not.
Republicans on the Oversight, Judiciary and Ways and Means committees gave the attorney general until noon on Monday to give over materials from Robert Hur's interviews with Biden that led him to conclude the president is 'elderly' and 'well-meaning' but has a 'poor memory.'
They subpoenaed transcripts, notes, audio and video files largely related to Hur's interview.
The GOP chairmen say they are still waiting for recordings of the Biden interview - though they've received transcripts - and the transcript and audio recordings of an interview with Biden's ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer who he was found to have shared classified files with.
Republicans on Monday threatened to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress if he does not hand over more materials in the Robert Hur investigation of President Biden's classified documents
Hur said he found that Biden had 'willfully' retained classified material but stopped short of filing charges, believing a jury would not convict the president
'The February 27 subpoenas create a legal obligation on you to produce this material,' they wrote. 'If you fail to do so, the Committees will consider taking further action, such as the invocation of contempt of Congress proceedings.'
The Justice Department has only said it is conducting an 'interagency review' for classified and confidential information within the material.
Hur said he found that Biden had 'willfully' retained classified material but stopped short of filing charges, believing a jury would not convict the president.
He sparked opposition from all sides - Republicans who questioned why he would not charge the president and Democrats who took issue with his description of Biden as a 'sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.'
He explained his decision to make the assessment in the hearing: 'I knew that for my position to be credible. I could not simply announce that there would be no charges, I needed to explain why. I needed to show my work.'
'We identified evidence that the President willfully retained classified materials after the end of his vice presidency, when he was a private citizen,' Hur said during a high-stakes hearing earlier this month.
In interviews with investigators, Biden became muddled about the dates he was vice president and could not even remember the year in which his son Beau died, according to the transcript reviewed by DailyMail.com.
The box circled in the foreground contained documents about Afghanistan. The picture was taken in December 2022 in Biden's garage, with other household items
Special Counsel Robert Hur spent a year investigating files found at President Joe Biden's home and former office. He said Biden's status as president meant he could not be prosecuted
Biden forgot the year Beau died, when Trump was elected and said 'I don't recall', 'I don't remember' and 'I have no goddamn idea' more than 100 times while cracking jokes and making car noises with the investigators.
And it said his cavalier attitude to classified documents, such as his habit of reading sensitive files to a ghostwriter, posed a significant national security risk.
One of the reasons they decided not to press charges was because 'at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.'
Hur said during testimony that he described Biden this way because of his 'inability to recall certain things' and that he had to be prompted by his lawyers to recall certain dates.
According to transcripts of Hur's interviews with Biden on October 8 and October 9, 2023, Biden's lawyer had to tell him what year his son Beau died of brain cancer and the president joked about the special counsel finding pictures of his wife Jill in a swimsuit.
I just hope you didn’t find any risqué pictures of my wife in a bathing suit. Which you probably did. She’s beautiful,' said Biden.
'What month did Beau die?' Biden mused at one point, adding, 'Oh God, May 30th.'
'He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died. And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him,' Hur said.
A White House lawyer then chimed in with the year, 2015.
'Was it 2015 he died?' Biden asked.