Interview transcript release complicated by material covered
WASHINGTON — The White House’s review of whether to release a transcript of a special counsel’s interview of President Joe Biden that set off a political furor is being complicated by the sensitive material it covers, including classified information, security measures and discussions that could be subject to executive privilege, people familiar with the matter said.
The White House has been pressed by reporters seeking the transcript since the release last week of the report by Robert Hur, a special counsel who investigated Biden’s handling of classified records from his vice presidency after he left office. And three Republican chairs of House oversight committees have sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding that he turn over the transcript and audio recording.
But while the White House has indicated it is looking at releasing the material to support its assertions that Hur’s characterization that Biden’s memory had “significant limitations” was inaccurate and driven by partisanship, it has made no commitment to do so and has offered no timetable. It does not appear that such a disclosure is imminent, according to people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal matters about why the review is challenging.
Hur, who was appointed by Garland and had previously served as a political appointee in the Trump Justice Department, found that “no criminal charges are warranted” against Biden, even though classified material from his vice presidency had been found at an office and in his home.
While the report said there was some evidence consistent with a conclusion that Biden had willfully retained the files without authorization, it also said the facts fell short of proving that he did so, and other evidence was consistent with innocent explanations.
But even as Hur concluded that there was no criminal case to be brought, he also portrayed Biden as an “elderly man with a poor memory” who in their interview forgot what years his term as vice president began and ended and what year his son Beau died.
In a letter appended to the report, Biden’s government and personal lawyers — who were present for the interview — disputed Hur’s portrayal of the president’s memory as unusually faulty, calling it both gratuitous and inaccurate. The pushback immediately raised the question of what the full transcript actually showed.
On Feb. 9, the day after the report was made public, Ian Sams, a spokesperson for the Office of the White House Counsel, told reporters that it was a “reasonable question” to ask whether the transcript would be released and said they would “have to work through” issues like the fact that the interview dealt with classified materials. Since then, the White House has pointed back to his remarks and declined to comment further.
But people familiar with the matter said classified material was just one of several complexities raised by the review, each of which is associated with its own potential bureaucratic process.
On the matter of classified information, the transcript was deemed highly classified from the start because the interview touched on systems for how classified material is stored and used by presidents, vice presidents and their staffs. Some of the topics discussed in the documents found in Biden’s office and home were also sensitive.
To undergo a declassification review, the transcript would need to be sent to various security-related agencies that have a stake in topics that were discussed for their review and input on whether anything would need to be redacted before any public release, the people noted. Those agencies potentially 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 Biden’s home in Delaware. To the extent the interview went into matters like the layout of rooms in his house and its security measures, those portions of the transcript apparently need to be reviewed by law enforcement and Secret Service officials to ensure that no material is made public that could jeopardize the security of the president and his family.
Yet another issue, the people said, involves executive privilege. While Biden, advised by his lawyers, declined to assert the privilege to block the release of anything Hur chose to include in his report, the five-hour interview was much wider-ranging than the selections the special counsel cited.