DOJ will not turn over Biden's recorded interview with Special Counsel Hur, risking contempt of Congress

The Justice Department will not produce subpoenaed audio recordings of former special counsel Robert Hur's interview with President Biden to House Republicans, putting Attorney General Merrick Garland at risk of being held in contempt of Congress.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, have threatened to hold Garland in contempt of Congress over the Justice Department's failure to produce the records. Last month, they set Monday, April 8, as the deadline for Attorney General Merrick Garland to comply.

The Justice Department did meet the GOP-imposed deadline to respond but notified lawmakers it would not be turning over the audio files.

"The Department is concerned that the Committees' particular focus on continuing to demand information that is cumulative of information we already gave you — what the President and Mr. Hur's team said in the interview indicates that the Committees' interests may not be in receiving information in service of legitimate oversight or investigatory functions, but to serve political purposes that should have no role in the treatment of law enforcement files," Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte wrote in a letter to Jordan and Comer Monday.

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The Justice Department did agree to turn over some other materials, such as a transcript of an interview with Mark Zwonitzer, Biden's ghostwriter.

But Comer and Jordan last month warned Garland that if he did not turn over the audio recordings, the "committees will