Attorney General Merrick Garland will be held in CONTEMPT of Congress for refusing to hand over audio recordings of Biden's special counsel interview where Robert Hur concluded he's an 'elderly man' with a 'poor memory'

Republicans will move to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress, DailyMail.com confirmed, after the Department of Justice refused to hand over audio tapes of Joe Biden's interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur.

The attorney general had until April 8 to hand over requested materials from Robert Hur's interviews with Biden that led him to conclude the president is 'elderly' and 'well-meaning' but has a 'poor memory.' 

They subpoenaed transcripts, notes, audio and video files largely related to Hur's interview.

While the DOJ has handed over transcripts of Hur's interviews with Biden as well as the transcript and audio recordings of an interview with Biden's ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer, Republicans are unsatisfied. 

They have insisted they need audio from Hur's interview too. 

But nearly a month after the deadline to send the audio tapes passed, the House Judiciary Committee is now moving to hold Garland in contempt of Congress, DailyMail.com confirmed.

The Judiciary committee will hold a markup of the contempt hearing on May 16.

The DOJ, however, said in an April letter to the GOP committee chairmen that the department had already been 'extraordinarily' accommodating in giving up the Biden transcript.

They said releasing audio as well might make it harder for prosecutors to secure recorded interviews in the future, with witnesses knowing they could be blasted out into the public.

'The Committees have already received the extraordinary accommodation of the transcripts, which gives you the information you say you need,' the letter, written by assistant attorney general Carlos Uriarte, read.

'To go further by producing the audio files would compound the likelihood that future prosecutors will be unable to secure this level of cooperation. They might have a harder time obtaining consent to an interview at all. It is clearly not in the public interest to render such cooperation with prosecutors and investigators less likely in the future.'

The letter said that the Oversight and Judiciary committees have not identified any valid reasoning for needing the audio of the interview in addition to transcripts.

Still, the GOP disagreed. 

Oversight Chairman James Comer clapped back in a statement: 'The Biden Administration does not get to determine what Congress needs and does not need for its oversight of the executive branch.'

Hur, in a report explaining his decision not to prosecute Biden over mishandling classified documents, sparked opposition from all sides - Republicans who questioned why he would not charge the president and Democrats who took issue with his description of Biden as a 'sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.' 

'The February 27 subpoenas create a legal obligation on you to produce this material,' the GOP lawmakers wrote to Garland. 'If you fail to do so, the Committees will consider taking further action, such as the invocation of contempt of Congress proceedings.' 

The Justice Department has only said it is conducting an 'interagency review' for classified and confidential information within the material.

Hur said he found that Biden had 'willfully' retained classified material but stopped short of filing charges, believing a jury would not convict the president. 

He explained his decision to make the assessment in the hearing: 'I knew that for my position to be credible. I could not simply announce that there would be no charges, I needed to explain why. I needed to show my work.' 

'We identified evidence that the President willfully retained classified materials after the end of his vice presidency, when he was a private citizen,' Hur said during a high-stakes hearing in April.

In interviews with investigators, Biden became muddled about the dates he was vice president and could not even remember the year in which his son Beau died, according to the transcript reviewed by DailyMail.com.

Biden forgot the year Beau died, when Trump was elected and said 'I don't recall', 'I don't remember' and 'I have no goddamn idea' more than 100 times while cracking jokes and making car noises with the investigators. 

And it said his cavalier attitude to classified documents, such as his habit of reading sensitive files to a ghostwriter, posed a significant national security risk.

One of the reasons they decided not to press charges was because 'at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.' 

Hur said during testimony that he described Biden this way because of his 'inability to recall certain things' and that he had to be prompted by his lawyers to recall certain dates.  

According to transcripts of Hur's interviews with Biden on October 8 and October 9, 2023, Biden's lawyer had to tell him what year his son Beau died of brain cancer and the president joked about the special counsel finding pictures of his wife Jill  in a swimsuit. 

I just hope you didn’t find any risqué pictures of my wife in a bathing suit. Which you probably did. She’s beautiful,' said Biden. 

'What month did Beau die?' Biden mused at one point, adding, 'Oh God, May 30th.'  

'He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died. And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him,' Hur said. 

A White House lawyer then chimed in with the year, 2015.

'Was it 2015 he died?' Biden asked.