DOJ hands over Joe Biden's ghostwriter transcript to appease Republicans but REFUSES to release audio recordings of Special Counsel Hur's interview and now Merrick Garland could be held in contempt

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday handed over transcripts of an interview with President Biden's ghost writer Mark Zwonitzer, whom the president gave classified documents, but refused to release audio of ex-special counsel Robert Hur's Biden interview. 

While the DOJ has handed over transcripts of Hur's interviews with Biden that led him to conclude the president is 'elderly' and 'well-meaning' but has a 'poor memory,' Republicans are unsatisfied. They insist they need audio of the interview too. 

They subpoenaed transcripts, notes, audio and video files largely related to Hur's interview - giving Attorney General Merrick Garland until Monday at noon and threatening him with contempt if he does not comply. 

The DOJ said in a new letter to GOP committee chairmen that the department had already been 'extraordinarily' accommodating in giving up the Biden transcript. 

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

They said releasing audio as well might make it harder for prosecutors to secure recorded interviews in the future, with witnesses knowing they could be blasted out into the public. 

'The Committees have already received the extraordinary accommodation of the transcripts, which gives you the information you say you need,' the letter, written by assistant attorney general Carlos Uriarte, read. 

'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. It is clearly not in the public interest to render such cooperation with prosecutors and investigators less likely in the future.'

The letter said that the Oversight and Judiciary committees have not identified any valid reasoning for needing the audio of the interview in addition to transcripts.  

It said the DOJ had 'met or exceeded the Committees' informational needs' stated in the subpoenas. 

'Our efforts at cooperation prove that we are, and continue to be, willing to do our part to show the American people that the officials who serve them can work together productively in the public interest while avoiding unnecessary conflict,' Uriarte went on. 

Oversight Chairman James Comer clapped back in a statement: 'The Biden Administration does not get to determine what Congress needs and does not need for its oversight of the executive branch.'

'It’s curious the Biden Administration is refusing to release the audio of President Biden’s interview with the Special Counsel after releasing the transcript. Why shouldn't the American people be able to hear the actual audio of his answers? The American people demand transparency from their leaders, not obstruction.'

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

'Yet the Committees have responded with escalation and threats of criminal contempt. The Committees’ reaction is difficult to explain in terms of any lack of information or frustration of any informational or investigative imperative, given 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. We urge the Committees to avoid conflict rather than seek it.'

Hur, who had interviewed Biden over October 8 and 9, 2023, resigned as special counsel and left the DOJ shortly before testifying in Congress last month.  

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.