President Biden has invoked executive privilege to block House Republicans from obtaining audio recordings of his interviews with special counsel Robert Hur over his handling of classified documents.
Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday requested Biden assert executive privilege over the recordings, which had been subpoenaed by the House Judiciary and Oversight committees.
“Because of the President’s longstanding commitment to protecting the integrity, effectiveness, and independence of the Department of Justice and its law enforcement investigations, he has decided to assert executive privilege over the recordings,” White House counsel Ed Siskel wrote in a letter obtained by The Hill.
While Hur’s report 345-page concluded no charges should be brought against the president, its descriptions of Biden’s memory lapses and the description of the president as a well-meaning, elderly man” set off a political firestorm.
Hur cited Biden’s 2017 conversations with ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer, which Hur described as “painfully slow, with Mr. Biden struggling to remember events and straining at times to read and relay his own notebook entries.”
