The Justice Department disclosed on Monday that it possesses transcripts of President Biden’s interviews with biographer Mark Zwonitzer, contradicting earlier statements of non-possession.
This revelation occurred in the context of ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests concerning the investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Hur into Biden’s handling of classified documents after his vice presidency.
The DOJ’s court filing noted that six electronic files containing 117 pages of verbatim transcripts were found, created by a court-reporting service.
“We don’t have some transcript that’s been created by the special counsel that we can attest to its accuracy,” DOJ lawyer Cameron Silverberg said.
“In the past few days, in the course of processing the portions of the Biden-Zwonitzer audio recordings that the parties agreed to (see June 25, 2024 Joint Status Report at 2-3, ECF No. 20), the Department located six electronic files, consisting of a total of 117 pages, that appeared to be verbatim transcripts of a small subset of the Biden-Zwonitzer audio recordings created for the SCO by a court-reporting service,” the court filing read.
Hur confirmed that he relied on these transcripts and a handwritten note from Biden regarding Afghanistan for his report, which concluded that Biden would not face criminal charges due to his perceived cognitive limitations.
“Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone from whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him – by then a former president well into his eighties – of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness,” Hur wrote.
“The audio recordings of your interview and Mr. Zwonitzer’s interview fall within the scope of executive privilege. Production of these recordings to the Committees would raise an unacceptable risk of undermining the Department’s ability to conduct similar high-profile criminal investigations–in particular, investigations where the voluntary cooperation of White House officials is exceedingly important,” Attorney General Merrick Garland wrote.
This situation has sparked controversy regarding Biden’s mental fitness for office.
Additionally, the day prior, Biden announced his withdrawal from the presidential race amid rising pressure from Democrats following concerns about his debate performance and age.
