House GOP to File Lawsuit to Enforce Subpoena for Hur–Biden Interview Tapes

The U.S. Capitol building on June 11, 2024. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

House Republicans will go to federal court next week to enforce a subpoena for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release the audio of special counsel Robert Hur’s two-day interview with President Joe Biden over his handling of classified information.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced the move during the weekly GOP press conference on June 26.

Mr. Johnson said the House needs the audio tape to match the written transcript that the DOJ has provided to Congress.

“In the meantime, there are a lot of different ideas and discussions that people are brainstorming on how might we acquire access to those tapes. We are looking at all avenues,” he said.

The announcement was made after the DOJ declined to bring charges against Attorney General Merrick Garland after House Republicans voted to hold him in contempt for defying a subpoena for the tapes.

The department has refused to hand over tapes of Mr. Hur’s interview with President Biden, saying Congress has already received the transcripts of the interviews and that it does not need the audio.

The White House has also invoked executive privilege over the tapes.

Mr. Hur’s report, in reaching its conclusion to not recommend charges against the president, cited that President Biden would present to a jury as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

House Republicans have maintained that they need the tapes to verify the transcript’s accuracy and to confirm that Mr. Hur’s observation was justified.

The DOJ and Democrats pushed back, contending that Republicans wanted the tapes solely for partisan reasons.

“The absence of a legitimate need for the audio recordings lays bare your likely goal—to chop them up, distort them, and use them for partisan political purposes,” Ed Siskel, President Biden’s counsel, wrote to House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) in a May letter.

The DOJ has argued that providing the tapes would deter future presidents from cooperating with similar investigations.

“I will not jeopardize the ability of our prosecutors and agents to do their jobs effectively in future investigations,” Mr. Garland said at a House Judiciary Committee hearing in June.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) has announced that she will force a House vote on June 28 on a contempt resolution that would have the House sergeant at arms arrest Mr. Garland for failing to comply with the subpoena.

The resolution is privileged, so the House will be forced to vote on it within two legislative days once she brings it to the floor.

Ms. Luna said at the June 26 press conference that not enforcing the subpoena makes Congress powerless in its oversight duties.

The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service noted that “although it appears that Congress may be able to enforce its own subpoenas through a declaratory civil action, relying on this mechanism to enforce a subpoena directed at an executive official may prove an inadequate means of protecting congressional prerogatives due to the time required to achieve a final, enforceable ruling in the case.”

Mr. Johnson has not ruled out Ms. Luna’s course of action but said, “I don’t think anything’s been settled on.”

The Epoch Times reached out to the DOJ for comment about the resolution but received none by press time.