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Garland’s deadline to produce recordings of Biden interview in Hur case looms, risking contempt of Congress

Garland’s deadline to produce recordings of Biden interview in Hur case looms, risking contempt of Congress

Monday is the deadline for Attorney General Merrick Garland to produce subpoenaed audio recordings of former special counsel Robert Hur’s interview with President Biden to House Republicans or risk being held in contempt of Congress.  House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, have threatened to hold Garland in contempt of Congress over the Justice Department’s failure to produce the records. Last month, they set Monday, April 8, as the deadline for Garland to comply.  “The Department continues to withhold additional material responsive to the Committees’ subpoenas – specifically the audio recordings of Special Counsel Hur’s interviews with President Biden and the transcript and audio recordings of Special Counsel Hur’s interviews with Mr. Zwonitzer,” Comer and Jordan wrote. “The February 27 subpoenas create a legal obligation on you to produce this material.”  HUR TESTIFIES BIDEN ‘WILLFULLY RETAINED CLASSIFIED MATERIALS,’ BUT PROSECUTORS ‘HAD TO CONSIDER’ MENTAL STATE HUR TESTIFIES HE ‘DID IDENTIFY EVIDENCE’ THAT ‘PRIDE AND MONEY’ MOTIVATED BIDEN TO RETAIN CLASSIFIED RECORDS Comer and Jordan said they expect Garland “to produce all responsive materials no later than 12:00 p.m. on April 8, 2024.”  “If you fail to do so, the Committees will consider taking further action, such as the invocation of contempt of Congress proceedings,” they wrote.  Comer and Jordan subpoenaed the Justice Department for a transcript of Hur’s interview with Biden and audio recordings.  Just hours before Hur was scheduled to testify publicly earlier this month, the DOJ produced to the committees two redacted transcripts of Hur’s interviews with Biden.  BIDEN GHOSTWRITER ESCAPES SPECIAL COUNSEL CHARGES DESPITE DELETING EVIDENCE The Justice Department did not, however, produce the audio recordings of the interviews. Comer and Jordan said the committees “specifically prioritized” the production of those audio recordings.  Meanwhile, Comer and Jordan subpoenaed Mark Zwonitzer last month. The subpoena compels Zwonitzer to turn over all documents and communications with Biden or his staff related to his ghostwriting work on Biden’s memoirs “Promise Me, Dad” and “Promises to Keep,” including emails, call logs and more.  The subpoena also compels Zwonitzer to turn over all contracts and agreements related to his work, along with audio recordings of interviews and conversations with Biden and transcripts of those conversations and interviews.  The president has claimed that he did not share classified information with Zwonitzer, but Hur’s report, released last month, states that Biden would “read from his notebooks nearly verbatim, sometimes for an hour or more at a time,” and “at least three times President Biden read classified notes from national security meetings” to Zwonitzer “nearly verbatim.”  Hur testified earlier this month that Zwonitzer “slid” files of audio recordings and transcripts of conversations with Biden “into his recycle bin on his computer” upon learning that a special counsel had been appointed to investigate the matter. Jordan, during Hur’s public hearing earlier this month, asked whether the ghostwriter tried to “destroy the evidence.”  “Correct,” Hur testified.  Hur, who released his report to the public in February after months of investigation, did not recommend criminal charges against Biden for mishandling and retaining classified documents — and stated that he would not bring charges against Biden even if he were not in the Oval Office.  Those records included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan and other countries, among other records related to national security and foreign policy, which Hur said implicated “sensitive intelligence sources and methods.”  Hur, in his report, described Biden as a “sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory” – a description that has raised significant concerns for Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign. Fox News Digital reached out to the DOJ for comment.

DOJ will not turn over Biden’s recorded interview with Special Counsel Hur, risking contempt of Congress

DOJ will not turn over Biden’s recorded interview with Special Counsel Hur, risking contempt of Congress

The Justice Department will not produce subpoenaed audio recordings of former special counsel Robert Hur’s interview with President Biden to House Republicans, putting Attorney General Merrick Garland at risk of being held in contempt of Congress.  House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, have threatened to hold Garland in contempt of Congress over the Justice Department’s failure to produce the records. Last month, they set Monday, April 8, as the deadline for Attorney General Merrick Garland to comply.  The Justice Department did meet the GOP-imposed deadline to respond but notified lawmakers it would not be turning over the audio files.  “The Department is concerned that the Committees’ particular focus on continuing to demand information that is cumulative of information we already gave you — what the President and Mr. Hur’s team said in the interview indicates that the Committees’ interests may not be in receiving information in service of legitimate oversight or investigatory functions, but to serve political purposes that should have no role in the treatment of law enforcement files,” Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte wrote in a letter to Jordan and Comer Monday.  HUR TESTIFIES BIDEN ‘WILLFULLY RETAINED CLASSIFIED MATERIALS,’ BUT PROSECUTORS ‘HAD TO CONSIDER’ MENTAL STATE HUR TESTIFIES HE ‘DID IDENTIFY EVIDENCE’ THAT ‘PRIDE AND MONEY’ MOTIVATED BIDEN TO RETAIN CLASSIFIED RECORDS The Justice Department did agree to turn over some other materials, such as a transcript of an interview with Mark Zwonitzer, Biden’s ghostwriter.  But Comer and Jordan last month warned Garland that if he did not turn over the audio recordings, the “committees will consider taking further action, such as the invocation of contempt of Congress proceedings.” Comer and Jordan subpoenaed the Justice Department for a transcript of Hur’s interview with Biden and audio recordings.  Just hours before Hur was scheduled to testify publicly earlier this month, the DOJ produced to the committees two redacted transcripts of Hur’s interviews with Biden.  BIDEN GHOSTWRITER ESCAPES SPECIAL COUNSEL CHARGES DESPITE DELETING EVIDENCE The Justice Department did not, however, produce the audio recordings of the interviews. Comer and Jordan said the committees “specifically prioritized” the production of those audio recordings.  Meanwhile, Comer and Jordan subpoenaed Mark Zwonitzer last month. The subpoena compels Zwonitzer to turn over all documents and communications with Biden or his staff related to his ghostwriting work on Biden’s memoirs “Promise Me, Dad” and “Promises to Keep,” including emails, call logs and more.  The subpoena also compels Zwonitzer to turn over all contracts and agreements related to his work, along with audio recordings of interviews and conversations with Biden and transcripts of those conversations and interviews.  The president has claimed that he did not share classified information with Zwonitzer, but Hur’s report, released last month, states that Biden would “read from his notebooks nearly verbatim, sometimes for an hour or more at a time,” and “at least three times President Biden read classified notes from national security meetings” to Zwonitzer “nearly verbatim.”  Hur testified earlier this month that Zwonitzer “slid” files of audio recordings and transcripts of conversations with Biden “into his recycle bin on his computer” upon learning that a special counsel had been appointed to investigate the matter. Jordan, during Hur’s public hearing earlier this month, asked whether the ghostwriter tried to “destroy the evidence.”  “Correct,” Hur testified.  Hur, who released his report to the public in February after months of investigation, did not recommend criminal charges against Biden for mishandling and retaining classified documents — and stated that he would not bring charges against Biden even if he were not in the Oval Office.  Those records included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan and other countries, among other records related to national security and foreign policy, which Hur said implicated “sensitive intelligence sources and methods.”  Hur, in his report, described Biden as a “sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory” – a description that has raised significant concerns for Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign.

DOJ will not turn over Biden’s recorded interview with Special Counsel Hur, risking contempt of Congress

DOJ will not turn over Biden’s recorded interview with Special Counsel Hur, risking contempt of Congress

The Justice Department will not produce subpoenaed audio recordings of former Special Counsel Robert Hur’s interview with President Biden to House Republicans, putting Attorney General Merrick Garland at risk of being held in contempt of Congress.  House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, have threatened to hold Garland in contempt of Congress over the Justice Department’s failure to produce the records. Last month, they set Monday, April 8, as the deadline for Garland to comply.  The Justice Department did meet the GOP-imposed deadline to respond but notified lawmakers it would not turn over the audio files of Hur’s interview about Biden’s alleged improper retention of classified documents from his time as a senator and vice president. “The Department is concerned that the Committees’ particular focus on continuing to demand information that is cumulative of information we already gave you — what the President and Mr. Hur’s team said in the interview indicates that the Committees’ interests may not be in receiving information in service of legitimate oversight or investigatory functions, but to serve political purposes that should have no role in the treatment of law enforcement files,” Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte wrote in a letter to Jordan and Comer Monday.  HUR TESTIFIES BIDEN ‘WILLFULLY RETAINED CLASSIFIED MATERIALS,’ BUT PROSECUTORS ‘HAD TO CONSIDER’ MENTAL STATE HUR TESTIFIES HE ‘DID IDENTIFY EVIDENCE’ THAT ‘PRIDE AND MONEY’ MOTIVATED BIDEN TO RETAIN CLASSIFIED RECORDS The Justice Department did agree to turn over some other materials, such as a transcript of an interview with Mark Zwonitzer, Biden’s ghostwriter.  But Comer and Jordan last month warned Garland that if he did not turn over the audio recordings, the “committees will consider taking further action, such as the invocation of contempt of Congress proceedings.” Comer and Jordan subpoenaed the Justice Department for a transcript of Hur’s interview with Biden and audio recordings.  Just hours before Hur was scheduled to testify publicly last month, the DOJ produced for the committees two redacted transcripts of Hur’s interviews with Biden.  BIDEN GHOSTWRITER ESCAPES SPECIAL COUNSEL CHARGES DESPITE DELETING EVIDENCE The Justice Department did not, however, produce the audio recordings of the interviews. Comer and Jordan said the committees “specifically prioritized” the production of those audio recordings.  Meanwhile, Comer and Jordan subpoenaed Mark Zwonitzer last month. The subpoena compels Zwonitzer to turn over all documents and communications with Biden or his staff related to his ghostwriting work on Biden’s memoirs “Promise Me, Dad” and “Promises to Keep,” including emails, call logs and more.  The subpoena also compels Zwonitzer to turn over all contracts and agreements related to his work, along with audio recordings of interviews and conversations with Biden and transcripts of those conversations and interviews.  The president has said that he did not share classified information with Zwonitzer, but Hur’s report states that Biden would “read from his notebooks nearly verbatim, sometimes for an hour or more at a time,” and “at least three times President Biden read classified notes from national security meetings” to Zwonitzer “nearly verbatim.”  Hur testified last month that Zwonitzer “slid” files of audio recordings and transcripts of conversations with Biden “into his recycle bin on his computer” upon learning that a special counsel had been appointed to investigate the matter. Jordan, during Hur’s public hearing, asked whether the ghostwriter tried to “destroy the evidence.”  “Correct,” Hur testified. Hur, who released his report to the public in February after months of investigation, did not recommend criminal charges against Biden for mishandling and retaining classified documents — and stated that he would not bring charges against Biden even if he were not in the Oval Office.  Those records included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan and other countries, among other records related to national security and foreign policy, which Hur said implicated “sensitive intelligence sources and methods.”  Hur, in his report, described Biden as a “sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory” – a description that has raised significant concerns for Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign.

CA sheriff blasts Newsom’s ‘failed leadership’ on crime, proposes solution to fix ‘disaster’: ‘Had enough’

CA sheriff blasts Newsom’s ‘failed leadership’ on crime, proposes solution to fix ‘disaster’: ‘Had enough’

Riverside County, California, Sheriff Chad Bianco is helping lead an effort to reverse a 2012 ballot measure he says is directly contributing to the homelessness and crime crisis in the Golden State and is calling on Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to get on board. “California, we’re in a very trying time right now when it comes to public safety and for the most part, from a law enforcement perspective, we can say that, we can attribute the majority of our issues that we are having, or at least, there’s some type of a correlation to them, to the passage of Prop 47 in 2012,” Bianco told Fox News Digital. Prop 47, passed in 2012, reclassified a number of felonies, including retail and property theft, as misdemeanors. Under Prop 47, petty theft of goods valued under $950 is classified as a misdemeanor, even for multiple offenses. It also took a broad swath of narcotics possession offenses that were previously felonies and converted them to misdemeanors. Bianco told Fox News Digital that voters were “lied to” about that measure, which he says has contributed to a deterioration in public safety. CALIFORNIA DEMS ANGER PROGRESSIVE LEFT, PUSH HARSHER PENALTIES FOR SHOPLIFTERS AMID RISING CRIME “Quite frankly, we were lied to and misled by our state, in that the name and the description on the ballot was not something that we were getting,” Bianco explained. “We voted for a proposition that was named the Safe Schools and the Safe Streets Initiative and it contained absolutely nothing to do with safe streets or safe schools, and it was everything that is bad about public safety right now, directly contributing to the increase in homelessness, mental health and drug addiction. Directly resulted in what we see now in our serial theft cases, in our retail theft cases and issues in crime of residential burglaries and those types of things.” The ballot measure Bianco is hoping will be on the ballot this November, which he calls the Homelessness, Drug Addiction and Theft Reduction Act, will undo the lowering of narcotics possession penalties from felonies to misdemeanors, will allow judges to recommend rehab for drug and substance abuse, and will allow prosecutors to add the value amount of multiple thefts together in order to meet the $950 threshold set by Prop 47 thus cracking down on serial thefts. “If you need help to get fixed, then we should be able to help you. If you just flat out refuse, and you’re going to continue to use drugs and cause us all to be victimized by your drug addiction and your theft and everything else, then you’re going to suffer the consequences of jail time,” Bianco said.  SOCIAL MEDIA ERUPTS, ACCUSES GOV. NEWSOM OF PUSHING ‘SURVEILLANCE STATE’ WITH NEW ANTI-CRIME POLICY “It’s just plain and simple. But the reality is, without consequences, there is no reason for anyone to change behavior, and we need to get past this feel good way of what our legislators are doing now in this, this notion that it’s somebody else’s fault and you’re not responsible for your own actions. We need to move past that, and we need to get back to a time of common sense that would tell us if we can put you in rehab and help you, then great. We’ve helped you. We’ve helped society. But otherwise, then you’re going to have to do jail time, so we stop you from victimizing the rest of us.” Newsom has signaled he opposes the changes to Prop 47, which Bianco says is an example of a failure of leadership. “The governor is going to have no choice but to get on board because this is 100% complete common sense,” Bianco said. “We have a complete failed political agenda in this state. It’s been a social experiment that has been led by the governor, from his time as mayor of San Francisco, into lieutenant governor and now governor, which has been made worse by our attorney general, who has absolutely no desire to fix any of these issues with crime and protect Californians.” “Right now, they are against it because, in elementary terms, I guess they’re going to have to admit that Prop 47 was a disaster that they have tried to defend for years since its passing and the reality of a leader, a true leader, is someone that can say, ‘Look, we had good intentions of something, but, we had some unintended consequences that now we have to fix.’ That would have been a leadership way for our government to come out of this ahead. But instead, for the past 10 years, they have completely defended Prop 47. They have lied to the public.” While unveiling his budget plan earlier this year, Newsom took issue with the accusation he is unwilling to alter Prop 47 and made the case that the issue does not need to be sent back to the voters in November. Newsom also pointed to his plan to address the crime issue and suggested amending Prop 47 is not necessary. CALIFORNIA DA WARNS THIEVES TO STAY AWAY OR ELSE: ‘WE’RE THROWING THE BOOK AT CRIMINALS’ “So it’s not that,” the governor said, referring to a presentation slide showing that the $950 retail theft threshold is the 10th lowest in the nation. “Everyone I know is rushing to reform Prop 47 to raise the threshold, OK, that’s not the fundamental issue, the issue is the other issues that are not 47 related, the things we advanced yesterday and are working with the legislature on and that is the nature of retail theft has changed, it’s not just the onesie twosies, yes that’s an issue I don’t deny that that’s why we’ve put hundreds of millions of dollars up, but it’s also become deeply organized and that’s what we need to go after and that’s a whole different thing.” Newsom continued, “I said this years go when someone said you gotta reform 47. I said I’m open to