Staff Reports
Hold onto your hats, folks. The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee dropped a legal bomb on Attorney General Merrick Garland this week, filing a lawsuit demanding that the Department of Justice hand over the audio recordings of President Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur. It’s time for some transparency, and the GOP is done playing nice.
This isn’t just about the interview with Biden, though. The committee also wants to record Hur’s chat with Biden’s ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer. The ball is now in the DOJ’s court, as they need to respond to this lawsuit, which aims to peel back a few more layers of this administration’s increasingly opaque operations.
Remember when the House voted to hold Garland in contempt of Congress in June? Well, the DOJ decided not to press criminal charges against its leader, triggering a volcanic response from House Republicans who are now taking the fight to the courts. Garland earned that contempt of Congress badge after refusing a subpoena to cough up the audio recordings earlier this year. The Justice Department might think providing the full transcripts cuts it, but the Republicans aren’t letting them off that easy.
House GOP files lawsuit against Merrick Garland for Hur audio https://t.co/yvAhnJD8sO via @dcexaminer
— Stay Tuned from Chicago with Roger Bartlett (@ChicagoPatriot9) July 1, 2024
Republicans argue that these audio recordings are essential to scrutinizing Hur’s investigation into Biden’s mishandling of classified documents. While Hur’s report concluded that Biden shouldn’t be charged because a jury might be too sympathetic towards him due to his age and supposed memory issues, the GOP isn’t buying that flimsy excuse. They want to hear for themselves just how “sympathetic” the President sounds when under the spotlight.
The Judiciary Committee’s lawsuit blasts the administration’s claim of executive privilege as “frivolous” and “self-serving.” The Republicans insist that the audio, complete with Biden’s voice inflections and tone, is the real key to understanding how the President conducted himself during the interview. Cold transcripts just don’t cut it when digging into the nitty-gritty details of presidential misconduct.
Predictably, House Democrats have spun this into another opportunity to accuse Republicans of turning the issue into political theater. They claim the GOP wants the recordings for Trump’s campaign ads or to exploit Biden’s stutter, thinking that might “smear” him. But let’s be real; it’s a desperate distraction from the fact that they’re stonewalling a legitimate inquiry into national security risks.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida has her own plan up her sleeve with an “inherent contempt” resolution, proposing another route to obtain the recordings. There’s division within the GOP ranks about this move, with some calling it overkill while others think it’s a solid plan if it gets past the floor. But that vote is floating in limbo with the House on recess.
And as the wheels of justice grind slowly, the DOJ remains tight-lipped, proving once again that transparency is a foreign concept to this administration. The American people deserve answers, and the Republicans are determined to deliver them.
