DOJ rebuffs GOP’s second demand for Biden-Hur audio recordings

The Justice Department on Thursday for a second time declined to turn over audio recordings of President Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur, rejecting claims from GOP impeachment investigators that the recordings contain information that would help them with their probe.

The letter renews the specter of possible contempt proceedings for Attorney General Merrick Garland. House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) had floated this as a possible response if the audio files were not delivered Thursday.

“Our cooperation has been extraordinary. The Committees have not responded in kind. It seems that the more information you receive, the less satisfied you are, and the less justification you have for contempt, the more you rush towards it,” Carlos Uriarte, head of legislative affairs for the Justice Department, wrote in a letter to Jordan and House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.).

“The Committees’ inability to identify a need for these audio files grounded in legislative or impeachment purposes raises concerns about what other purposes they might serve,” he said, noting that the Justice Department has previously questioned whether they were being requested for political purposes.

“This concern has only deepened with the Committees’ failure to identify a legitimate purpose that would be served by production of these files,” Uriarte added.