WASHINGTON ― The Department of Justice on Friday told Republicans that it would hand over documents from special counsel Robert Hur’s report on President Joe Biden’s handling of classified material.
But the department won’t give Republicans the transcript or audio of Hur’s interview with Biden, which was what Republicans wanted most after Hur said in his report that Biden came off as an “elderly man with a poor memory.”
Given voter concerns about Biden’s age, Hur’s characterization was incredibly damaging for the 81-year-old president ― and valuable to Republicans and former President Donald Trump in his quest to regain the White House.
In letters to House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and House oversight committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), the DOJ said it was holding back documents because they “require review for classification and protection of national defense information.”
“We also have substantial confidentiality interests regarding sensitive law enforcement and intelligence information,” Assistant Attorney General Carlos Felipe Uriarte wrote in the letters.
Jordan spokesperson Russell Dye suggested that there was no national security reason to withhold documents.
“Our staff has all necessary clearances to review the contents of the President’s interview, which dealt with materials found in unsecured areas like garages, closets and commercial office space,” Dye said in a statement. “We are evaluating next steps.”
Next steps for Republicans could include asking a court to enforce the subpoena they used to request the material, but the fact that the Justice Department has cooperated somewhat would likely weaken the case. Uriarte asked the House committees to “join us in seeking to avoid conflict when there is, in fact, cooperation.”
In his report, Hur explained that the DOJ wouldn’t charge Biden for breaking the law over keeping classified material from his days as vice president, citing a host of mitigating factors, including that Biden would seem to a jury like a sympathetic, forgetful old man.
Republicans demanded the transcript and other documents from Hur as part of their impeachment inquiry into Biden, saying in a February letter to the department that “there is concern that President Biden may have retained sensitive documents related to specific countries involving his family’s foreign business dealings.”
Specifically, lawmakers requested two documents related to a December 2015 phone call between Biden, who was vice president at the time, and the prime minister of Ukraine. Hur’s report said that one document contains Biden’s talking points for the call, while the other is a transcript ― and that the material probably isn’t sensitive national defense information.
“The two exchanged pleasantries and the Prime Minister heaped praise upon Mr. Biden for his December 9, 2015 speech to Ukraine’s parliament,” the report said. “They did not engage in a substantive policy discussion.”
Uriarte said that the DOJ would let lawmakers look at the documents in a secure room.
Despite contrary testimony from multiple State Department employees involved in Ukraine policy, Republicans have claimed that Biden urged Ukraine to fire a prosecutor because his son Hunter Biden was making millions of dollars from a Ukrainian gas company. Their best piece of corroborating evidence had been an FBI informant’s claim that the company’s founder bribed Joe Biden, but that claim evaporated last month when the Justice Department said the informant had lied.
The impeachment inquiry can fight on, however, in its quest for the Hur transcript, even if Republicans wind up settling for criminal referrals or legislation rather than articles of impeachment.
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