House GOP demands DOJ share tapes of potentially damning Biden special counsel interview

February 12, 2024

WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Monday asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to share documents and tapes of President Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur’s investigators and information about records that may pertain to his family’s foreign business dealings.

The chairmen of three House committees leading an impeachment inquiry into Biden for alleged corruption warned that they will issue a subpoena if Garland does not comply with the request by Feb. 19 — setting up a high-stakes potential election-year showdown.

Republicans believe the information could propel forward their investigations of Biden’s role in his family’s business dealings in China and Ukraine and that the Oct. 8-9 interview tapes and transcript additionally could damage Biden by more precisely documenting what Hur described as the president’s cognitive decline as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

“As detailed in Mr. Hur’s report, classified materials found at both President Biden’s residence in Wilmington, Delaware and the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement include documents related to China and Ukraine,” the trio of House leaders wrote to Garland.

“[T]here is concern that President Biden may have retained sensitive documents related to specific countries involving his family’s foreign business dealings,” wrote Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and tax-focused Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.).

“Further, we seek to understand whether the White House or President Biden’s personal attorneys placed any limitations or scoping restrictions during the interview that would have precluded a line of inquiry regarding evidence (emails, text messages, or witness statements) directly linking the President to troublesome foreign payments.”

The congressional request seeks “all documents and communications, including audio and video recordings, related to the Special Counsel’s interview of President Biden” as well as “the documents identified as ‘A9’ and ‘A10’ in Appendix A of Mr. Hur’s report, which relate to President Biden’s December 11, 2015 call with then-Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.”

Joe Biden’s classified documents probe report

Special counsel Robert Hur determined that President Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials” after leaving office as vice president in 2016.
The records kept by Biden included documents on military and foreign policy in Afghanistan as well as other national security and foreign policy issues.

Biden kept the classified documents in part to assist with the writing of his memoirs. According to the report, Biden told a ghostwriter in a 2017 conversation that he had “just found all the classified stuff downstairs.”
Despite the findings, Hur’s 388-page report recommended that the president not face charges.
The special counsel noted that Biden would likely present himself to a jury as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” if he were to face trial.

The Republicans futher demanded “all communications between or among representatives of the Department of Justice, including the Office of the Special Counsel, the Executive Office of the President,
and President Biden’s personal counsel referring or relating to Mr. Hur’s report.”

In addition, the GOP chairmen sought records related to Biden’s book ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer, with whom Biden alleged shared classified information, according to Hur’s report.

“Please produce this information as soon as possible, but no later than 5:00 p.m. on February 19, 2024. Given the seriousness of these matters, the Committees are prepared to compel the production of this material if necessary,” the panels wrote.

The White House and Justice Department did not immediately respond to The Post’s requests for comment Monday.

Hur’s nearly 400-page report, released Thursday, contained no mentions of first son Hunter Biden or first brother James Biden, who regularly involved their powerful relative in their foreign business relationships.

There is evidence, including photos, emails and witness statements, that Joe Biden as vice president and in the years that followed interacted with their partners from two Chinese government-linked business ventures and additional relationships with Russian, Mexican, Kazakhstani and Ukrainian patrons.

The House impeachment inquiry is investigating those relationships as well as an alleged Justice Department cover-up to shield the Biden family.