House Republicans Threaten to Hold Garland in Contempt for Refusing to Turn Over Special Counsel’s Tapes of Biden

House Republicans are threatening to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt if the Justice Department does not fully comply with subpoenas for materials from special counsel Robert Hur’s classified-documents investigation.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) and Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R., Ky.) wrote a letter to Garland on Monday warning the Justice Department contempt will be on the table if the Justice Department continues refusing to turn over subpoenaed materials from Hur’s probe.

“The Department continues to withhold additional material responsive to the Committees’ subpoenas—specifically the audio recordings of Special Counsel Hur’s interviews with President Biden and the transcript and audio recordings of Special Counsel Hur’s interviews with Mr. Zwonitzer,” the letter reads.

The Justice Department only produced letters between Biden’s legal counsel and the DOJ on March 7, the initial return date for the subpoena, and offered to review classified documents in camera. House Republicans responded by demanding the materials on March 11, the day before Hur testified in front of the Judiciary Committee, but the Justice Department told lawmakers a review of the materials was pending.

Moments before Hur testified, the Justice Department turned over the transcripts of Biden’s interviews with Hur to the committee. Numerous publications reported on the transcripts before the committees received them.

“The February 27 subpoenas create a legal obligation on you to produce this material. Accordingly, the Committees expect you to produce all responsive materials no later than 12:00 p.m. on April 8, 2024. If you fail to do so, the Committees will consider taking further action, such as the invocation of contempt of Congress proceedings.”

Jordan subpoenaed Biden’s ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer on Friday for audio recordings and transcripts of interviews he conducted with Biden for his book, Promise Me Dad, published after his vice presidency concluded. Zwonitzer deleted audio recordings of himself and Biden held on his laptop after Hur became special counsel, Hur confirmed. FBI analysts were able to recover the recordings and Zwonitzer eventually turned over the relevant materials in his possession.

Hur’s final report on his investigation of Joe Biden’s retention of classified documents was released last month. Although Hur did not recommend charges against the president, his observations of Biden’s mental faculties brought fresh scrutiny upon the president’s advanced age. The transcripts of Hur’s interviews with Biden appeared to corroborate details from Hur’s report on Biden forgetting when he served as vice president and the year his son Beau died. Hur began his testimony by defending his detailed account of Biden’s mental faculties because it was necessary to determine whether Biden “willfully” retained classified information.

The White House attempted to pressure Hur into watering down his descriptions of Biden’s age before the report was published, Hur testified. Last week, Garland dismissed critics who believe he should have intervened to edit Hur’s report to soften up its language.