Biden allies, rivals both want transcript of his special counsel interview released. It could happen

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden avoided criminal charges over his handling of classified documents, in part because of his answers during a lengthy interview with the special counsel investigating him. But the sit-down also opened Biden up to new scrutiny about his age and memory, and now the public release of a transcript of that discussion is being sought by both Biden allies and critics seeking political advantage.

The five-hour interview over two days, conducted by special counsel Robert Hur, helped establish that Biden had no intention of keeping most of the sensitive data from his vice presidency found in his home and personal office. But Hur’s report also repeatedly questioned Biden’s memory in deeply personal ways, suggesting, for example, that the president could not remember when his own son had died.

If the transcript is released, it could provide a more complete picture of the conversation.

The White House has the ultimate say in whether to make the transcript or audio recording of the interview public, or whether to claim executive privilege and keep the interview private. There is precedent for both decisions.

A transcript of President Bill Clinton’s 1998 grand jury proceedings regarding allegations of a sexual relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky was included as part of Independent Counsel Ken Starr’s voluminous report, which was delivered to the House and subsequently was released to the public after a vote by Congress. .

The Starr team extensively debated how much to disclose in the report, taking into account the graphic and sensitive nature of the findings, said Robert Bittman, who served as Starr’s deputy during the investigation. They thought it would never be released, he said, so they gave “all the information (to Congress) we had so they could make their own decisions.”

President George W. Bush, on the other hand, invoked executive privilege to prevent the public release of records from his own 2004 interview with Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, who investigated the leak of Valerie Plame’s identity as a CIA officer. to block. Bush also claimed the privilege to block the release of related interviews by then-Vice President Dick Cheney and other officials.

Bittman said he didn’t think it was “necessarily a good thing” for investigative reports to be made public. But now that the Hur report has been made public, he said, it would be helpful to release the transcript of Biden’s interview “so people can judge for themselves Hur’s views on what President Biden said and what he remembered and what he did” t remembering is justified.”

“If you see the White House objecting to it, that probably suggests that the transcripts are not good for the White House,” Bittman said, “and if they support their release, then I think the transcripts are good for White House. House of President Biden.”

The White House is considering whether or not to release it.

Biden’s interview text and the audio recording are classified because they include a discussion of highly sensitive documents. Any potential release could come through an order from the White House or through the Justice Department’s efforts to comply with congressional oversight requests. Both would follow virtually identical procedures.

Once the decision was made to release the interview, sensitive portions of the document would be sent to the intelligence community to assess what could be released and what needed to be redacted. Further investigation would be warranted to determine whether anything discussed about the security of the president’s home could impact protective measures.

Finally, with the advice of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, the White House should consider whether to recommend that Biden invoke executive privilege over what others had approved for publication.

While Biden did not invoke executive privilege over the full report, the transcript could very well be a different story. Among the documents found in Biden’s home were records of deliberations over a possible U.S. troop surge during the war in Afghanistan and other conversations inside the White House — a topic presidents are especially reluctant to discuss publicly.

The interview with Biden took place over two days last October, immediately after Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel.

Hur and his deputy, Marc Krickbaum, a former Trump-appointed U.S. attorney from Iowa, asked all the questions. Biden was accompanied by White House counsel Ed Siskel, the firm’s investigative director Richard Sauber and the president’s personal attorney Bob Bauer. Several other people from both sides were also in the room, according to a person familiar with the interviews who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss them.

Separately, House Republicans have approached Hur and his representatives about the possibility of Hur testifying before Congress, and he has expressed willingness to do so, according to two people who were not authorized to speak publicly about the request and spoke at condition of anonymity.

Both Republicans and Democrats are interested in more complete details about what’s in the report. Biden and his allies say a full transcript would show the president is mentally sharp and prove Hur chose moments solely to make him appear weak. Biden’s lawyers raised their concerns with Attorney General Merrick Garland, who nevertheless decided to leave the report unchanged and make it public.

Bauer, speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation” this weekend, related an anecdote that was not included in the report but would be in a transcript. He said Hur acknowledged that he sometimes asked inaccurate questions — questions that Biden picked apart.

“Now everyone in the room realized that this was the case, which showed that the president was listening intently and understood exactly what was wrong with those questions. I couldn’t help but notice the special prosecutor’s inability to ask precise questions and think to myself, “He’s having mental acuity issues.” I just thought he was asking bad questions.”

Republicans, meanwhile, have also called for the audio of the interviews to be released and want to know more about why Hur chose not to prosecute Biden, especially when they noted in their report that some evidence showed he retained and shared with a ghostwriter who was very was highly regarded. secret information.

Hur said in his report that he found evidence that Biden deliberately mishandled classified documents, but not enough evidence for a criminal prosecution like the one against former President Donald Trump.

Trump is not only accused of deliberately hoarding top-secret documents after leaving office, but is also accused of obstructing the FBI’s efforts to recover them and asking staff to provide evidence for investigators behind hold.

Biden and his team, by contrast, alerted law enforcement officials after finding classified documents, willingly turned over documents to the government, and cooperated with investigators by allowing the FBI to search his properties for any additional files.

These voluntary searches are separate from the FBI’s 2022 search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property, which was conducted after the FBI obtained a warrant for the home when it determined additional classified documents were deliberately hidden there. Trump has denied all allegations.