The House Judiciary Committee sued Attorney General Merrick Garland Monday in an effort to force him to turn over audio recordings of President Joe Biden's interviews with special counsel Robert Hur.
The Republican-led panel asked the District of Columbia court to overrule the president's assertion of executive privilege and require the attorney general to hand over the recordings to Congress, which has already obtained transcripts of Hur's interviews with Biden and his ghostwriter, reported CNN.
“Transcripts do not and cannot capture emphasis, inflection, intonation, nuance, pace, pauses, pitch, rhythm, tone, and other verbal and nonverbal cues and idiosyncrasies that convey meaning to a listener,” House Republicans wrote in the letter.
“A witness communicates even when he or she hesitates, pauses, or remains silent — all of which have no replication in a transcript,” GOP lawmakers continued. “These aspects of an interview provide immeasurable insight into a witness’s credibility and mental state and help in evaluating and understanding a witness’s answers.”
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Hur ultimately decided not to charge Biden with criminal mishandling of classified records, saying that a jury would likely sympathize with him as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory," which the president's political opponents have seized on.
GOP lawmakers subpoenaed the recordings in February, shortly after Hur released his final report, but the Department of Justice has refused to turn them over, accusing Republicans of wanting the materials for political purposes, and two conservative groups — Heritage Foundation and Judicial Watch — have also sued for their release, along with multiple media outlets.
