House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) is seeking interview recordings and transcripts from Joe Biden’s ghostwriter.
Jordan wrote a letter Wednesday to ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer demanding documents and information related to his work ghostwriting Joe Biden’s memoirs, Promise Me Dad and Promises To Keep, in the wake of special counsel Robert Hur’s final report on Biden’s handling of classified materials.
Hur’s investigation found Joe Biden shared classified information with Zwonitzer on at least three occasions by reading nearly verbatim from notebook entries written during his vice presidency.
“At least three times, Mr. Biden read classified notes from national security meetings to Zwonitzer nearly verbatim,” Hur said on page 244 of his roughly 400 page report.
“The first two incidents involved the same notebook passage. On February 16, 2017, Mr. Biden appeared to explain to Zwonitzer that a notebook entry related to ‘a long meeting on the Security Council on – it probably was classified,” Hur added.
Joe Biden read more classified portions of the notebook entry during a conversation with Zwonitzer two months later, Hur documented.
“Two months later, on April 10, 2017, during another recorded conversation with Zwonitzer, Mr. Biden turned to the same notebook entry and read additional classified portions aloud, again nearly verbatim,” Hur said.
“This evidence shows that Mr. Biden disclosed classified information to Zwonitzer, who was not authorized to receive it. But the evidence falls short of proving that Mr. Biden did so willfully,” he concluded.
Jordan’s request to Zwonitzer cites those portions of Hur’s report and the special counsel’s references to audio records and transcripts of conversations with Joe Biden.
Hur suggested Zwonitzer deleted audio recordings from his computer after the classified-documents investigation began. The recordings were created during conversations for Promise Me Dad and FBI specialists ended up recovering them. Zwonitzer did turn over his laptop, an external hard drive, and transcripts of some of the tapes.
“In light of Special Counsel Hur’s investigation and report, the Committee requires materials and information currently in your possession. Accordingly, to advance our oversight, please produce the following documents and information,” Jordan’s letter concludes.
Jordan instructed the ghostwriter to hand over his communications, contracts, evidence of payments, audio recordings and transcripts of any interviews or conversations between him and Joe Biden for both of Biden’s memoirs. Zwonitzer has until February 23rd to produce the information and schedule an interview with the committee.
Hur opted not to bring charges against Zwonitzer for the alleged deletion of the recordings. He similarly decided against pursuing criminal charges against President Biden despite finding evidence Biden willfully retained classified documents related to Afghanistan policy and other national security matters.
The special counsel’s observations about President Biden’s advanced age and memory loss sparked renewed scrutiny of the sitting president’s mental faculties. President Biden delivered an angry press conference on February 8th following the report’s release to dispute Hur’s findings.
President Biden denied sharing classified information with his ghostwriter. Most notably, he confused the presidents of Egypt and Mexico during his press conference.
White House spokesman Ian Sams wrote a letter Tuesday to the White House Correspondents Association accusing the media of incorrectly covering the contents of Hur’s report.
Sams insisted special counsel Hur did not determine that Biden willfully possessed classified documents.