In the latest episode of Hunter and the Hijinks, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey decides to drop an atomic truth bomb on the Justice Department. Mukasey is charging into the legal fray, demanding that President Biden’s chit-chat audio recordings with special counsel Robert Hur be released. He’s labeling the Justice Department’s argument to withhold them as “flawed.”
Mukasey, who served as attorney general under President George W. Bush, has come out swinging, filing a declaration that smacks down the government’s excuse for keeping those recordings buried. He’s accusing the DOJ of twisting his words from a 2008 letter—crafted during the Valerie Plame investigation—to justify Biden’s cloak of executive privilege. The Biden White House, predictably enough, paraded out Mukasey’s old letter, trying to fend off transparency like a vampire shuns sunlight.
Bush-era attorney general Michael Mukasey joins legal fight to release audio recordings of Biden interviewhttps://t.co/uIjnSiXNCv pic.twitter.com/DptOzje6yL
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) June 25, 2024
Merrick Garland, doing his best impression of an impenetrable bureaucrat, sent Congress a letter reiterating that making the recordings public would scare future witnesses into silence. Mukasey, unleashing his inner bulldog, countered this Bologna by stating that his original 2008 letter pertained to serious “official White House actions,” not Biden’s “private conduct.” He pointed out that invoking executive privilege, in this case, stretches credibility thinner than a vegan’s patience at a Texas BBQ.
Trying to give the Machiavellian spin some credibility, Garland seems to have conveniently forgotten the White House’s release of a written transcript of Biden’s interview. Mukasey highlighted that this alone obliterates any “expectation of confidentiality.” The courtroom drama adds more intrigue as Mukasey notes that these audio records could clarify why Hur didn’t bring charges against the President despite evidence that he “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials.”
The Heritage Foundation, Judicial Watch, and various news outlets, including CNN, have joined the battle, filing their lawsuit to get the tapes released. Meanwhile, House Republicans, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, are grappling with Garland in court over access to these juicy recordings. Garland’s contempt of Congress charge didn’t go unnoticed, but the DOJ has predictably decided it has better things to do than prosecute its attorney general.
The whole circus centers around a surreal interview with Biden, where Hur concluded the President was too sympathetically forgetful to prosecute. The report painted a touching portrait of a man who couldn’t recall crucial events, including when his son died—a convenient case of selective amnesia. Incidentally, these audio recordings are the linchpin that influenced Hur’s decision, and Mukasey wants the truth to march into the spotlight, whether Biden likes it or not.
This indiscretion-laden saga marks the first time a sitting president faced a grilling with a special counsel pondering criminal charges. But rest assured, the fight for those audio recordings and, ultimately, accountability continues, despite every effort of the Biden administration to bury the truth under bureaucratic red tape.