The White House’s consideration of whether to release a transcript of a special counsel interview with President Biden that has caused political uproar is complicated by the sensitive material it contains, including classified information, security measures and discussions subject to executive privilege could. said people familiar with the matter.
The White House has been besieged by reporters requesting the transcript since the release last week of the report by Robert K. Hur, a special counsel who investigated Mr. Biden’s handling of classified documents from his vice presidency after he left office. And three Republican chairmen of House oversight committees have sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick B. Garland urging him to release both the minutes and the audio recording.
But while the White House has indicated it is considering releasing the material to support its claims that Hur’s characterization of Mr. Biden’s memory as having “significant limitations” was inaccurate and partisan, it has not committed to doing so and has no timetable offered. It doesn’t look like such a disclosure is imminent, say people who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal matters about why the review is challenging.
Mr. Hur, who was appointed by Mr. Garland and previously served as a political appointee in the Trump Justice Department, noted that “no criminal charges” were warranted against Mr. Biden, even though classified material from his vice presidential office was found in his possession in his home.
While the report said there was some evidence leading to the conclusion that Mr. Biden had intentionally retained the files without authorization, it also said that the facts did not prove that he did so and that other evidence would be consistent with innocent explanations.
But while Mr. Hur concluded that no criminal proceedings should be initiated, he also portrayed Mr. Biden as an “older man with a poor memory” who forgot in their interview which years his term as vice president began and ended and what His son Beau died that year.
In a letter accompanying the report, Mr. Biden’s government and personal lawyers — who were present at the interview — sharply disputed Mr. Hur’s portrayal of the president’s memory as unusually flawed, calling it both unfounded and inaccurate. The resistance immediately raised questions about what the full transcript actually showed.
On February 9, a day after the report’s release, Ian Sams, a spokesman for the White House counsel’s office, told reporters that it was a “reasonable question” to ask whether the transcript would be released, saying that this was the case. Issues such as the fact that the interview involved classified material needed to be “worked through”. The White House has since walked back his comments and declined further comment.
But people familiar with the matter said classified material was just one of several complexities raised by the review, each with its own potential bureaucratic process.
With respect to confidential information, the minutes were classified as highly confidential from the outset because the interview addressed systems for the storage and use of confidential material by presidents, vice presidents and their staffs. Some of the topics discussed in the documents found in Mr. Biden’s office and home were also sensitive.
To undergo a clearance review, the transcript would have to be sent to various security-related agencies involved in the topics discussed so they can review them and comment on whether anything needs to be redacted before publication, the people said. These agencies may include the Pentagon, the State Department, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the CIA
Another problem is that a major focus of the investigation was Mr. Biden’s home in Delaware. To the extent that the interview addressed issues such as the layout of his home and security measures, those parts of the transcript will apparently need to be reviewed by law enforcement and intelligence officials to ensure that no material is released that could endanger the president’s security and his family.
Another problem, the people said, concerns executive privilege. While Mr. Biden, on the advice of his lawyers, declined to exercise the privilege of blocking publication of anything Mr. Hur wanted to include in his report, the five-hour interview was much broader than the choices cited by the special counsel.
Mr. Hur apparently asked Mr. Biden about deliberations within the Obama administration on foreign policy matters. A key focus of the report was a memo that Mr. Biden sent to President Barack Obama in which, for example, he opposed his 2009 decision to send a surge of additional troops to the Afghanistan war zone.
To the extent that the interview included discussions of Mr. Biden’s discussions with Mr. Obama, a vice president to the president, or broader deliberations within the Cabinet and White House foreign policy team during the Obama administration, the transcript could contain matters that Mr. Biden himself said would choose to keep the secret as a privilege.
The doctrine of executive privilege allows the executive branch to keep material about high-level internal deliberations secret from Congress or the courts so as not to prejudice the openness of future internal discussions about how presidents should carry out their duties.
But especially since members of Congress have requested the transcript, such redactions could lead to litigation later. For example, the House could subpoena the unredacted version of the transcript and then sue if Mr. Garland refuses to release the transcript, citing Mr. Biden’s claim of executive privilege.
Against this background, the process for formally asserting managerial privileges is complex. Typically, such material is submitted by the White House to, among other things, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel for review and analysis of whether certain matters lawfully fall under the privilege as a matter of law.
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2024-02-14 18:45:47
www.nytimes.com
