Mark Zwonitzer, Robert Hur
Release the tapes!
A heavily redacted transcript of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s interview with Joe Biden’s ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer was released last month.
And now the Justice Department is admitting it ‘discovered’ Hur transcripts it previously claimed it did not have of Joe Biden’s conversation with his ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer.
Joe Biden asserted executive privilege over the audio recordings. Republicans have argued that Joe Biden cannot assert executive privilege over the audio since the transcript has already been released.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland classified the audio tapes of Biden’s interview with Hur as “Top Secret” and locked it way in a SCIF.
The DOJ is now claiming it discovered Hur transcripts in response to a flurry of FOIA lawsuits – shortly after Biden announced he is dropping out of the 2024 race.
“The Justice Department told a federal judge late Monday that it has located transcripts it previously denied having of President Joe Biden’s talks with a biographer that played a role in the recently completed criminal investigation into Biden’s handling of classified material before he became president.” – Politico reported.
NEW: Justice Department discovers transcripts it previously said it did not have of Biden’s chats with biographer discussed in Hur report. Also, DOJ relents and asks Hur for help in responding to flurry of #FOIA suits for his records
w/@kyledcheneyhttps://t.co/Tg5G90X4ti
— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) July 23, 2024
Here is the backstory on Mark Zwonitzer:
Special Counsel Robert Hur in February released a 345-page report on his investigation of the stolen classified documents.
Robert Hur found that Joe Biden “willfully retained” classified information, however, he decided not to charge him. Hur said there is evidence Biden retained classified notebooks, “knowing he was not allowed to do so.”
Biden was not charged even though he willfully retained SCIF-designated classified documents and shared material with his ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer.
Mark Zwonitzer told the special counsel’s office that Joe Biden knowingly shared highly classified information with him and took him to his Wilmington garage where classified materials were stored in boxes.
According to Robert Hur, In 2017, Joe Biden read aloud classified passages about meetings in the Situation Room to his ghostwriter “verbatim on at least three occasions” – and Biden still wasn’t charged.
Zwonitzer admitted he deleted the audio recordings of Biden interviews after Hur was appointed Special Counsel. Hur’s team still found them.
Technicians were able to recover the deleted recordings but Zwonitzer was not charged for deleting the files.
According to the report, portions of three of Zwonitzer’s recovered audio files appeared to be missing and a fourth file appeared to have portions overwritten with a separate recording.
“Zwonitzer stated that at some point he deleted the audio files subfolder from his laptop and external hard drive. No relevant deleted files were recovered from the laptop. Deleted audio files were recovered from a subfolder on the external hard drive labeled “Audio.” Based on the available evidence from the forensic review, we assess that all deleted audio files were recovered from that subfolder. For three of the recovered files, portions of the audio appeared to be missing, and a fourth file appeared to have portions overwritten with a separate recording. These results are possible when forensic tools are used to recover deleted files. For each of these four incomplete or overwritten files, Zwonitzer produced his corresponding transcripts to investigators. These notes summarized the content of the conversations, two of which were with Mr. Biden and two of which were with Beau Biden’s doctor,” the report read.
The House Judiciary Committee last month voted to hold Mark Zwonitzer in contempt of Congress.
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan said his committee subpoenaed Mark Zwonitzer for documents related to his conversations with Joe Biden as mentioned in Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report. He has not complied with the subpoenas.
“We need the audio recordings and transcripts,” Jim Jordan said.
The post DEVELOPING: Justice Department ‘Discovers’ Hur Transcripts it Previously Claimed It Did Not Have of Joe Biden’s Conversation with His Ghostwriter appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.