Suspecting a possible coverup was in play, the Republican chairs of the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees subpoenaed materials related to Special Counsel Robert Hur's investigation of President Joe Biden's retention of classified documents, including audio recordings of Hur's interviews with Biden.

Likely fueling those suspicions, the DOJ has defied the committees' subpoenas and refused to turn over the requested audio files for the interviews, with the department boldly asserting that Congress had no apparent legitimate need for the recordings, USA Today reported.

The rejection prompted a sharp rebuke from Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY), who reminded the DOJ that it wasn't up to them to determine "what Congress needs and does not need for its oversight of the executive branch."

House committees demand audio recordings of Hur's interviews with Biden

Ever since Special Counsel Hur's final report was issued in February, the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees have repeatedly demanded the DOJ turn over certain materials related to Hur's probe as part of their ongoing impeachment inquiry against President Biden.

The DOJ only partially cooperated with those demands, such as providing a transcript of Hur's interviews with Biden, but declined to hand over the audio recordings of the conversations, which prompted a March 25 letter from Chairmen Comer and Jim Jordan (R-OH) that threatened criminal contempt of Congress proceedings against Attorney General Merrick Garland over the DOJ's continued non-compliance.

The committees may soon make good on that prior threat now that the DOJ has responded with its presumptuous determination that the committees don't really need all of the materials that were lawfully and properly subpoenaed.

DOJ's letter to Comer and Jordan

On Monday, Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte sent a six-page letter to Chairmen Comer and Jordan that falsely insisted that the DOJ had already fully cooperated with the issued subpoenas, including providing a transcript of the interviews, even as the department continued to refuse to turn over the requested audio recordings.

"Yet the Committees have responded with escalation and threats of criminal contempt. The Committees’ reaction is difficult to explain in terms of any lack of information or frustration of any informational or investigative imperative, given the Department’s actual conduct," Uriarte wrote. "We are therefore concerned that the Committees are disappointed not because you didn’t receive information, but because you did. We urge the Committees to avoid conflict rather than seek it."

The letter went on to outline some of the "extraordinary amount of information" that had already been provided to Congress, including certain classified documents referenced in Special Counsel Hur's report, Hur's testimony in a lengthy hearing, certain correspondence between the DOJ and Hur's office, a transcript of Hur's interview with President Biden, and now the "further accommodation" of a transcript of Hur's interview with Biden's ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer.

"The Committees have received the information you requested. That information may not have substantiated the concerns the Committees articulated, but it does appear to help resolve them and your inquiry," Uriarte wrote.

"The Department is concerned that the Committees’ particular focus on continuing to demand information that is cumulative of information we already gave you -- what the President and Mr. Hur’s team said in the interview -- indicates that the Committees’ interests may not be in receiving information in service of legitimate oversight or investigatory functions, but to serve political purposes that should have no role in the treatment of law enforcement files," the letter continued.

The assistant AG concluded his letter by suggesting that the DOJ might be willing to hand over the subpoenaed audio files if the committees were able to more fully "articulate" a legitimate need for them, though he set a high bar for them to clear in that regard by citing worries of a "potential chilling effect" that the provision of the audio recordings might have on the DOJ "securing cooperation from witnesses and targets" in other ongoing and future investigations.

Comer not pleased with DOJ's refusal to fully cooperate with subpoenas

The Hill reported that Chairman Comer, in response to the DOJ letter, said in a statement on Monday, "The Biden Administration does not get to determine what Congress needs and does not need for its oversight of the executive branch."

"It’s curious the Biden Administration is refusing to release the audio of President Biden’s interview with the Special Counsel after releasing the transcript. Why shouldn’t the American people be able to hear the actual audio of his answers?" he answered.