(Headline USA) House Republicans issued a subpoena this week for special counsel Robert Hur’s interview with President Joe Biden from the investigation into Biden’s mishandling of classified documents.
Hur released his report last month with the recommendation that the Justice Department not file charges against Biden. The special counsel claimed a jury would be unlikely to convict Biden if charges were pressed because they would see him as a sympathetic elderly man with a poor memory.
According to Hur’s report, Biden did not remember when he was vice president or when his late son Beau died, raising concerns about his mental acuity and ability to continue serving in the role of president.
Republicans leading the House’s impeachment inquiry into Biden—House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky.;, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio; and House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo.— believe Hur’s wide-ranging interview with Biden may also have revealed whether the president was involved in his family’s foreign business dealings.
They requested that the Justice Department turn over all materials related to Biden’s interview with Hur earlier this month, but their Feb. 19 deadline was not met.
The Justice Department claimed it was “working to gather and process” the documents requested, but House Republicans took issue with the fact that the department “offered no timeframe by which it expected to make any productions or, indeed, any commitment that it would produce all of the material requested.”
Their subpoena must be fulfilled without further delay, they added.
“The Oversight and Judiciary Committees, in coordination with the Ways and Means Committee, are investigating whether sufficient grounds exist to draft articles of impeachment against President Biden for consideration by the full House,” they wrote in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
“The Committees are concerned that President Biden may have retained sensitive documents related to specific countries involving his family’s foreign business dealings,” they added.
The demand came as the committee finally had its scheduled private deposition of Hunter Biden, who earlier had openly flouted a subpoena and made a mockery of the impeachment proceedings.
Although transcripts had yet to be released, Comer indicated in a statement that there were inconsistencies with some of his accounts, and that they would further pursue the matter in a yet-to-be scheduled public hearing.
🚨BREAKING🚨
Following Hunter Biden’s deposition, Chairman Comer announces the next phase is a public hearing.
“I think this was a great deposition for us. It proved several bits of our evidence that we've been conducting throughout this investigation.
“But there were also… pic.twitter.com/ZtsqcyCED2
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) February 28, 2024