Judicial Watch Sues Justice Department for Transcripts of Biden Special Counsel Interviews
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice for records of all Special Counsel interviews of President Biden (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:24-cv-00700)).
Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the Department of Justice failed to respond to a February 8, 2024, FOIA request for “all transcripts, audio recordings, and video recordings of all interviews of President Biden conducted during the course of the investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Hur.”
On February 5, 2024, Special Counsel Robert Hur issued the “Report of the Special Counsel on the Investigation Into Unauthorized Removal, Retention, and Disclosure of Classified Documents Discovered at Locations Including the Penn Biden Center and the Delaware Private Residence of President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.”
In the report, Hur called Biden a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” and declined to charge Biden with a “serious felony:”
We have also considered that, 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. Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him-by then a former president well into his eighties-of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.
Prior to the finalization of the report, the White House issued a letter to the Special Counsel’s office attacking the report’s “treatment of President Biden’s memory,” and added “there is ample evidence from your interview that the President did well in answering your questions …”
“The Biden Justice Department needs to stop protecting Joe Biden, follow the law, and release the transcript and any recordings of his interviews,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
Judicial Watch has several ongoing FOIA lawsuits about Biden’s document scandals and the related Biden administration unprecedented prosecutorial abuse of Donald Trump over the handling of his records.
###
