by R. Cort Kirkwood, The New American:
Fearing that the American people might find out just how far President Joe Biden’s dementia has advanced, the White House and Department of Justice have asserted executive privilege to withhold the audio recordings of special counsel Robert Hur’s damning interview with him.
The committee subpoenaed the recordings on February 27, but the White House refused to comply.
Faced with a possible contempt citation, in letters to U.S. House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), Biden counsel Edward Siskel and Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte delivered the news. The transcript was bad enough, they said in so many words. You won’t hear Biden’s failing memory in his own voice.
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
So now the House has held Attorney General Merrick Garland — who advised Biden to assert the privilege — in contempt of Congress.
House Judiciary Committee votes to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt. https://t.co/HVxY7XxXoW
— The Hill (@thehill) May 16, 2024
Letters
“While our cooperation with Congress has been extraordinary, we also have a responsibility to safeguard the confidentiality of law enforcement files where disclosure would jeopardize future investigations,” Uriarte wrote today. “The Attorney General must draw a line that safeguards the Department from improper political influence and protects our principles, our law enforcement work, and the people who carry out that work independently.”
Uriarte also wrote that the Justice Department has done what it needed to do to fulfill the committees’ request:
The Department’s record in this matter is clear. We have made substantial efforts to accommodate your interest in Special Counsel Hur’s investigation. …
Despite our repeated requests over several months, the Committees have still not identified a remaining need for these audio files that would serve the asserted purposes of your investigations.
We have repeatedly made clear that disclosure of the subpoenaed audio recordings would damage future law enforcement efforts and that the Committee’s continued demands raise serious separation of powers concerns.
Uriarte then pointed to Garland’s letter to Biden. It said, “The Department has long recognized that executive privilege protects materials related to a closed criminal investigation where disclosure is likely to damage future law enforcement efforts.”
Garland also told Biden that “the Committees’ needs are plainly insufficient to outweigh the deleterious effects that production of the recordings would have on the integrity and effectiveness of similar law enforcement investigations in the future.”
Siskel’s letter said much the same thing, and burbled about the “rule of law,” noting that the committee wants the tape for political reasons.
Wrote Siskel, “The President has a duty to safeguard the integrity and independence of Executive Branch law enforcement functions and protect them from undue partisan interference that could weaken those functions in the future.”
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