(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The Biden-led DOJ has come up with a questionable explanation for why it refuses to release the audio of President Joe Biden’s deposition, related to Special Counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into his mishandling of classified documents.
In a Friday filing, the DOJ claimed that the threat of “deepfakes”—AI-generated fake audio or video—justifies withholding the audio, despite significant public and congressional interest.
DOJ fears it would be too difficult to refute deepfake audio if a copy of the deposition were released, according to the filings first reported by Politico.
“If the audio recording is released here, 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,” DOJ’s Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer claimed in the filing.
Weinsheimer further argued, “The passage of time and advancements in audio, artificial intelligence, and ‘deep fake’ technologies only amplify concerns about malicious manipulation of audio files.”
He also claimed that releasing the recording would “make it far more likely that malicious actors could pass off a deepfake as the authentic recording.”
Organizations leading the push to release the audio include Judicial Watch, the Heritage Foundation and CNN.
This new excuse follows the White House counsel’s office refusal to release the audio to House Republicans, who are leading an impeachment inquiry into Biden.
Attorney General Merrick Garland wrote in a letter to Biden in May, “The Committees’ needs are plainly insufficient to outweigh the deleterious effects that productions of the recordings would have on the integrity and effectiveness of similar law enforcement investigations in the future.”
Critics argue that the audio recording could offer a clearer picture of Biden’s mental acuty and knowledge about the classified documents, which the administration seems determined to keep hidden.
