In a letter, Assistant Attorney General Carlos Felipe Uriarte argued that the department has already given the House committees what they need.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) says it will not provide audio tapes of President Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur, which was subpoenaed by the House GOP.
In a letter to the House Oversight Committee and House Judiciary Committee on April 8, Assistant Attorney General Carlos Felipe Uriarte lamented that despite the department cooperating with the committees’ Feb. 27 subpoenas, “the committees have responded with escalation and threats of criminal contempt.”
“We urge the committees to avoid conflict rather than seek it,” he added. “It is not too late for the committees to choose a different path, to take an offramp towards the ’spirit of dynamic compromise’ that the Constitution requires of us both.”
The “spirit of dynamic compromise” quote comes from a federal court case.
The Feb. 27 subpoena was for notes, audio files, video, and transcripts of Mr. Hur’s probe. The committees set a deadline of March 7, according to a copy of the subpoena obtained by The Epoch Times.
“Americans expect equal justice under the law and DOJ is allowing the Bidens to operate above it,” said House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) in a statement. “Special Counsel Hur’s report outlined that classified documents Joe Biden stashed for years relate to countries where his family cashed in on the Biden brand.”
This was the second time the committees have asked the DOJ to turn over these records, the first being on Feb. 12.
Mr. Uriarte emphasized that the DOJ expeditiously complied with the committees’ requests.
In response to the committees wanting audio of author Mark Zwonitzer’s interviews with President Biden, whose two memoirs he wrote, Mr. Uriarte said there is no need for the department to hand it over, considering the committees have transcripts of the interviews.
Moreover, he wrote, “To go further by producing the audio files would compound the likelihood that future prosecutors will be unable to secure this level of cooperation.
