(ConservativeJournal.org) – Former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has criticized President Joe Biden’s claims regarding executive privilege.
The president has cited executive privilege to avoid releasing an interview he attended with Robert Hur, just weeks after he claimed that Trump lacked executive privilege during his time in office. According to Trump’s team, Biden has “politicized” executive privilege by preventing his political opponents from citing the defense while using it for his own personal gain. Biden’s decision to withhold the interview audio prompted members of Congress to hold Merrick Garland, Biden’s attorney general, in contempt.
The interview with Robert Hur has been of interest to the Republican-led House of Representatives for months, as it led to Hur’s report regarding President Biden’s mental health and capabilities, which indicated a steep decline in the president’s mental state. Hur released a transcript of the interview with President Biden, which featured multiple instances of President Biden forgetting pertinent details about his family and career, including how his oldest son Beau died. President Biden’s political opponents cited the transcript as proof of the president’s inability to serve another full term, but the White House claims that Hur’s questions were inappropriate and upset President Biden.
Biden’s decision to use executive privilege as an excuse to withhold the interview audio comes just weeks after the Department of Justice refused to extend executive privilege to Trump in his classified documents case and his actions surrounding the controversial 2020 presidential election. After his time in office, Trump allegedly mishandled documents with sensitive information about national secrets and sought investigations into the 2020 election results before President Biden entered the White House. According to Trump, his actions in both controversies should fall under executive privilege, a claim staunchly opposed by President Biden and his administration.
While the White House remains adamant that President Biden doesn’t have to release the interview audio, multiple congressional committees plan to address the interview and whether or not Garland should be held in contempt of Congress. Among the committees looking into the attorney general’s contempt charge and the concept of President Biden’s executive privilege are the House Oversight Committee and the House Judiciary Committee. Despite the House of Representatives’ push to have the White House release the interview audio, some legal experts believe President Biden’s executive privilege assertion could preclude the Congressional subpoena.
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