'Chop them up, distort them': White House slams 'improper threats' as it blocks Hur tapes

16 May 2024

As House Republicans move to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for refusing to hand over the audio tapes of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s interviews with President Joe Biden, the White House Counsel has notified two House committee chairmen President Biden is invoking executive privilege on those tapes.

“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,” White House Counsel Edward Siskel wrote in his letter to Republican Chairmen Jim Comer and Jim Jordan, as Politico reported. “Demanding such sensitive and constitutionally-protected law enforcement materials from the Executive Branch because you want to manipulate them for potential political gain is inappropriate.”

Siskel also reminded the chairs that the Dept. of Justice has already provided them with the transcripts of the interviews, and noted “the Attorney General has warned that the disclosure of materials like these audio recordings risks harming future law enforcement investigations by making it less likely that witnesses in high-profile investigations will voluntarily cooperate.”

The White House Counsel also unleashed strong criticism of the House chairmen’s prior actions, as proof of what he says is their likely goal.

“Rather than demonstrating respect for the rule of law, this contempt proceeding is just the latest in the Committees’ damaging efforts to undermine the very independence and impartiality of the Department of Justice and criminal justice system that President Biden seeks to protect. Your subpoenas and contempt threats come in the wake of the Committees’ efforts to go after prosecutors you do not like, attack witnesses in cases you disapprove of, and demand information from ongoing investigations and prosecutions, despite longstanding norms that these law enforcement processes should be allowed to play out free from such political interference.”

House Republicans for the past week have taken rotating shifts to show support for indicted ex-president Donald Trump at the courthouse where his trial on 34 felony charges is being held. House and Senate Republicans, and even the Speaker of the House, at various times have attacked the judicial system, witnesses, the judge, his daughter, and the District Attorney.

Siskel closes his letter with an apparent accusation of “improper threats.”

“The President will continue to protect the rule of law, and his Administration will continue to work in good faith to accommodate Congress’s legitimate interests, while standing up to improper threats to the independence of the nation’s justice system.”

Attorney General Garland appointed Robert Hur, a former Trump-era U.S. Attorney, to become a special counsel and head the investigation into President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents when he was a Vice President. While Hur found no evidence of criminal conduct and declined to press charges, his highly-controversial and, according to Democrats, highly-politicized 345-page report, was fodder for the media and congressional Republicans for weeks.

At one point in the report Hur described President Biden as “a well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” while, in a transcript of his interview with the President, the special counsel told him he appeared to have “photographic” recall. Those details were the subject of a tense exchange when Hur testified before Congress.

CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen, a former U.S. Ambassador and a special counsel for ethics and government reform under President Barack Obama, says he supports President Biden’s move.

“I handled executive privilege assertions as Special Counsel in WH & for Congress,” Eisen writes on social media. “Witness interviews are some of the most sensitive materials & DOJ commonly protects.”

“I agree with Exec[utive] Priv[ilege] call here.”

He notes the “Hur investigation is done & dusted, with NO finding of criminality.”

“Special Counsel report was already subject of mischief.”

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