DOJ rejects outside groups’ efforts to FOIA Hur tapes

The Department of Justice is fighting efforts from several groups to obtain audio recordings of the interview former special counsel Robert Hur conducted with President Joe Biden last year, according to court documents filed Thursday evening.

DOJ attorneys wrote that there is "no basis" under the Freedom of Information Act for the department to provide the recordings of Biden's interview, an argument that comes after the department released the transcript of it in March.

Three separate entities have joined the lawsuit as they attempt to force the DOJ to comply with their FOIA requests: the conservative groups Judicial Watch and the Heritage Foundation and a CNN-led media coalition that includes the Associated Press, CBS, Reuters, and several other companies.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has for months resisted calls to release the tapes of the interview, which Hur said contributed to his decision not to prosecute Biden for mishandling classified material. Hur said Biden came off as a "well-meaning elderly man" whose memory had "significant limitations," concluding that a jury may not reach a guilty verdict for that reason.

Garland has held on to the tapes in the face of requests from Congress, a subpoena, the House voting to hold Garland in contempt of Congress, a lawsuit from Congress, and FOIA requests and lawsuits from the various outside groups.

Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, accused the department of trying to "blow up FOIA to protect Joe Biden on a campaign issue," a remark that comes as Biden is facing mounting pressure from leaders of his own party to end his run for reelection amid dismal polling numbers.

"I've been doing this for nearly 30 years, I really haven't seen a desperate effort like this to avoid disclosure," Fitton told the Washington Examiner.

As the House began threatening Garland with contempt over the audio tapes, the White House asserted executive privilege over them in mid-May. The DOJ has since repeatedly pointed to privilege as a reason it cannot release the tapes. The House argued in court papers that asserting privilege over the tapes but not the transcript was a "frivolous assertion."

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DOJ also said in its FOIA lawsuit that releasing the audio would cause "unwarranted privacy harms ... without any meaningful countervailing public benefit" and would "interfere with witness cooperation" in current or future investigations.

Judge Timothy Kelly, who is presiding over the case, ordered the plaintiffs to respond by Aug. 1, meaning a decision could come anytime after that.