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FIRST ON FOX: House Republicans main the impeachment inquiry in opposition to President Biden are demanding the Justice Department flip over the transcript and any recordings of Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur in his investigation into his mishandling of categorised paperwork.
Hur, who launched his report to the general public final week after months of investigating, didn’t suggest legal prices in opposition to Biden for mishandling and retaining categorised paperwork — and acknowledged that he would not convey prices in opposition to Biden even when he weren’t within the Oval Office.
President Joe Biden salutes whereas arriving throughout an occasion within the Indian Treaty Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Nov. 27, 2023. (Michael Reynolds/EPA/Bloomberg by way of Getty Images)
Those data included categorised paperwork about navy and overseas coverage in Afghanistan and different international locations, amongst different data associated to nationwide safety and overseas coverage, which Hur stated implicated “sensitive intelligence sources and methods.”
Hur didn’t suggest any prices in opposition to the president, however did describe him as a “well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory” — an outline that has raised important considerations for his 2024 re-election marketing campaign.
On Monday, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith penned a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland requesting he flip over the transcript and any recordings of Biden’s October 2023 interview with Hur and the special counsel crew. The three chairmen are main the impeachment inquiry in opposition to President Biden.
Comer had requested Hur if any of the categorised data Biden held have been associated to the international locations that his household carried out enterprise with.
The New York Times editorial board claimed that Biden’s press convention in response to Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report made voters’ belief within the president’s psychological power worse. (Reuters / Getty)
Comer, final week, advised Fox News Digital he needs “unfettered access to these documents to determine if President Biden’s retention of sensitive materials were used to help the Bidens’ influence peddling.”
The letter despatched to Garland and obtained by Fox News Digital on Monday detailed the considerations that “Biden may have retained sensitive documents related to specific countries involving his family’s foreign business dealings.”
Rep. James Comer of Kentucky departs the House Committee on Ways and Means in Longworth House Office Building after the Republican convention voted to appoint Rep. Mike Johnson to be Speaker of the House on Oct. 24, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images)
“Further, we seek to understand whether the White House or President Biden’s personal attorneys placed any limitations or scoping restrictions during the interview that would have precluded a line of inquiry regarding evidence (emails, text messages, or witness statements) directly linking the President to troublesome foreign payments,” they wrote.
“Additionally, the Committee on the Judiciary requires these documents for its ongoing oversight of the Department’s commitment to impartial justice and its handling of the investigation and prosecution of President Biden’s presumptive opponent, Donald J. Trump, in the November 2024 presidential election,” they continued.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee leaves the Republican caucus assembly on the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
“Despite clear evidence the President willfully retained and transmitted classified materials willfully, Mr. Hur recommended ‘that no criminal charges are warranted in this matter,'” they wrote. “Although Mr. Hur reasoned that President Biden’s presentation ‘as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory’ who ‘did not remember when he was vice president’ or ‘when his son Beau died’ posed challenges to proving the President’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, the report concluded that the Department’s principles of prosecution weighed against prosecution because the Department has not prosecuted ‘a former president or vice president for mishandling classified documents from his own administration.’”
House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., left, and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., make opening statements throughout a listening to on the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, July 19, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
They added: “The one ‘exception’ to the Department’s principles of prosecution, as Mr. Hur noted, ‘is former President Trump.’ This speaks volumes about the Department’s commitment to evenhanded justice.”
Comer, Jordan and Smith demanded the supplies by Feb. 19.
This is a creating story. Please examine again for updates.
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