DOJ’s bizarre reason for not releasing audio of Biden’s Hur interview

Releasing the audio recording of Joe Biden’s awkward interview with special counsel Robert Hur (pictured right) would make hoaxes more credible, the Justice Department claims. The White House is fighting a rearguard action to keep the tape secret after Hur was described as an “older man with a bad memory” during his investigation into the mishandling of classified documents.

A transcript showed that the president forgot the year his son Beau died, when Trump was elected, and said more than a hundred times during the crackdown: “I don’t remember,” “I don’t remember,” and “I no fucking idea’. joking and making car noises. The DoJ has admitted that there is more than enough existing audio of the two men to create an AI version of the interview, but has argued that releasing the real article would make it more likely.

“If the audio recording is released, it is easy to foresee that it could be improperly altered and that the altered file could be passed off as an authentic recording and widely distributed,” wrote Assistant Assistant U.S. Attorney- Gen. Bradley Weinsheimer in a lawsuit. Friday. “The passage of time and advances in audio, artificial intelligence and ‘deep fake’ technologies only increase concerns about malicious manipulation of audio files.”

Hur was appointed last January to investigate “possible unauthorized disposal and retention of classified documents” after classified documents from Biden’s vice presidency were found at the Penn Biden think tank in DC and in the garage of Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware . “We found evidence that the President deliberately withheld classified material after the end of his vice presidency, while he was still a private citizen,” Hur concluded.

But he stopped short of filing charges, believing a jury would not convict the president. “At trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview with him, as a likable, well-meaning, older man with a bad memory,” he explained. ‘I knew that to make my position credible. I couldn’t just announce that no charges would be filed; I had to explain why. I had to show my work.’

The House of Representatives Oversight and Judiciary committees voted to hold Attorney General Mercik Garland in contempt for his refusal to comply with subpoenas for the audio of Biden’s five-hour interview with Hur. Biden was outraged by Hur’s testimony and the release of the transcript, then compounding his embarrassment with the refutable claim that Hur had brought up the subject of Beau’s death when it was in fact the president himself.

The president has claimed executive privilege in his effort to keep the tape hidden, and the DoJ warned of the dangers of AI manipulation in response to a legal challenge to it. Weinsheimer claimed that its release would “make it much more likely that malicious actors could pass off a deepfake as the authentic recording.”

Republicans have speculated that the published transcript may have been edited to cover up further blunders and have vowed to keep up the pressure for the audio version. “President Biden is apparently afraid that the citizens of this country and everyone else will hear those tapes,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said last month.

He added: “They clearly confirm what the special counsel has found and, in his estimation, would likely cause so much anxiety among the American people that the president would use all his power to block their release.”

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