During his testimony on Capitol Hill this week, former Special Counsel Robert Hur repeatedly referenced an audio recording of his five-hour interview with President Joe Biden.

Yet the Washington Examiner noted that when pressed about whether or not the blockbuster tape would be made publicly available, Hur had little to say. 

Hur says DOJ will decide whether to release audio

"Chairman, what I can tell you is that my assessment that went into my conclusions that I described, my report was based not solely on the transcript, it was based on all of the evidence, including the audio recordings," the Examiner quoted Hur as telling House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan.

"It is not for me to weigh into what information Congress should or should not have," the former special counsel went on to insist.

Hur explained that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will decide whether the tape will be released and pointed out that he recently left the agency.

In addition to being frustrated over the interview tape being withheld, Republican lawmakers also wanted to know why Hur had not brought charges against ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer.

Questions over why Biden's ghostwriter was charged

Hur's report detailed how Zwonitzer made recordings of Biden while the two were collaborating on a book called "Promise Me, Dad" and later deleted the material.

"The recordings had significant evidentiary value. But Zwonitzer turned over his laptop computer and external hard drive and gave consent for investigators to search the devices," Hur explained in the report.

"As a result, FBI technicians were able to recover deleted recordings relating to Promise Me, Dad Zwonitzer kept, and did not delete or attempt to delete, near-verbatim transcripts he made of some of the recordings," he stressed.

Fox News noted that this led Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz to at one point ask, "What does somebody have to do to get charged with obstruction of justice by you?"

Hur pushes back on Democratic claims that he "exonerated" Biden

However, Fox News also pointed out that it was not just Republicans who would clash with the former special counsel.

At issue was the contention by Democrats such as Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal that Hur's report had "exonerated" the president.

"I did not exonerate him," Hur asserted during one exchange with Jayapal, declaring, "That word does not appear in my report."

Hur told another lawmaker, "The word exoneration does not appear anywhere in my report, and that is not my conclusion."