Biden Invokes Executive Privilege In Robert Hur’s Documents Probe

(NewsReady.com) – Special Counsel Robert Hur declined to charge President Joe Biden with a crime in February. The prosecutor was investigating the incumbent POTUS over his handling of classified documents when he was vice president. Biden has now invoked executive privilege over the audio recordings from his interview with Hur.

On May 16, White House counsel Ed Siskel notified House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) that Biden would be invoking privilege. The attorney pointed to a recommendation from Attorney General Merrick Garland that he not release the recording from the special counsel interview.

Executive privilege is a power the president has that allows them to withhold certain confidential information from the legislative and judicial branches.

The Department of Justice has already released the transcript of the interview, but House Republicans wanted the audio recordings too. Garland wrote a separate letter to Jordan and Comer, saying his office has “gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure that the committees get responses to their legitimate requests,” but he wouldn’t comply with the request for the audio recordings. The AG argued that releasing the recordings would hurt the department’s ability to investigate sensitive matters in the future with voluntary cooperation from the White House.

Garland argued the request was part of a “series of unprecedented and frankly, unfounded attacks” from Republicans who are now trying to hold the AG in contempt for not providing them with the recordings. He slammed lawmakers for using threats of contempt to try to obtain “sensitive law enforcement files.” He vowed to protect the DOJ and its people.

Republicans moved forward with their efforts to go after Garland hours after Biden invoked privilege. The House Judiciary Committee voted 18-15 to recommend the full House vote on a measure to hold Garland in contempt of Congress.

Multiple news organizations are also trying to obtain the audio recordings.