The Justice Division notified Congress on Thursday that it’ll not adjust to a subpoena for audio recordings of President Biden’s interview with former Particular Counsel Robert Hur.
In an 11-page letter, Assistant Lawyer Basic Carlos Uriarte rejected claims from Home Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) that the recordings include info related to the Republican-led impeachment inquiry into the 81-year-old president.
Jordan and Comer have threatened to launch contempt proceedings towards Lawyer Basic Merrick Garland if the DOJ does adjust to the subpoena.
Uriarte argued that the DOJ has complied, by releasing transcripts of Hur’s interview with Biden and different paperwork associated to the federal investigation into the president’s dealing with of categorized paperwork.
He known as the contempt threats “unjustifiable,” defending the DOJ’s cooperation with the impeachment inquiry committees as “widespread, thorough, and constant.”
“If the Committees’ objective is to obtain info from the Division in furtherance of your investigations, that objective has been greater than met,” Uriarte wrote. “Our cooperation has been extraordinary.”
“The Committees haven’t responded in variety,” he continued. “It appears that evidently the extra info you obtain, the much less happy you’re, and the much less justification you could have for contempt, the extra you rush in direction of it.”
The DOJ official charged the Judiciary and Oversight committees with failing to “determine a necessity for these audio information grounded in legislative or impeachment functions.”
Uriarte defined that that has raised “considerations” about whether or not the lawmakers are looking for the audio information to attain political factors.
“We don’t receive proof for legal investigations in order that it could later be deployed for political functions,” he wrote.
The DOJ had already rebuffed an earlier demand for audio of Hur’s interview with Biden, arguing that releasing the recording would make it harder for prosecutors to safe interviews with witnesses or suspects in future investigations.
Jordan and Comer issued the subpoena for the audio information in late February.
Along with the Biden interview transcript, the DOJ has additionally launched a transcript of Hur’s interview with the president’s ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer.
Hur, a former Trump-appointed US lawyer for the District of Maryland, submitted his findings about Biden’s dealing with of categorized info in early February.
His 388-page bombshell report famous there was proof that the commander in chief “willfully retained and disclosed categorized supplies,” however his crew concluded there wasn’t sufficient to show it “past an inexpensive doubt.”
Hur additionally expressed concern {that a} jury would understand the oldest president in US historical past as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, aged man with a poor reminiscence.”
The Put up has reached out to the places of work of Comer and Jordan for remark.
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