Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee and Attorney General Merrick Garland are in court Monday in a dispute over audio recordings of President Biden’s interview with Robert Hur, the special counsel who investigated his handling of classified materials after his vice presidency.
The committee sued Garland in July in the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, escalating the fight over the audiotapes of Hur’s interview with the president and the ghostwriter of his book, Mark Zwonitzer. Hur interviewed both men as part of his investigation.
Hur declined to seek criminal charges against Mr. Biden for his handling of the documents. The president said he was largely unaware of how classified government records from his decades-long career in public office ended up in his homes and private office, according to the transcript of the interview, which was released in March. Hur said the evidence did not establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Biden had violated the law.
However, the special counsel made a number of observations about the president’s memory that enraged the White House and provided political ammunition to Republicans, whose impeachment inquiry into the president fizzled out.