(NewsNation) — House Republicans are issuing a subpoena to Attorney General Merrick Garland to compel him to hand over transcripts of President Joe Biden’s interviews with Special Counsel Robert Hur.
The deadline for providing the transcripts is March 7, the same day Biden is set to give his State of the Union address.
In a letter accompanying the subpoena, lawmakers said they were specifically investigating whether Biden retained documents related to countries his family members did business with and whether Biden’s attorneys limited the scope of questions that would have prevented Hur from asking about statements linking Biden to alleged foreign payments.
Read the full letter at the end of this post
Lawmakers also cited the need for transcripts for oversight over the Justice Department’s prosecution of former President Donald Trump. Trump and his allies have long claimed the cases against him are political in nature and an effort by the Biden administration to interfere with the upcoming election.
Hur’s report, which was released in early February, found that while Hur believed Biden had willfully retained and shared classified material, there was not sufficient evidence to bring charges. The report also included statements on Biden’s memory, referring to him as a “sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with memory issues.”
The subpoena is the latest request as House GOP members conduct an impeachment inquiry into Biden led by Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-KY, whose committee had been holding investigations into the Biden family’s business dealings.
Hur Report
Republicans have focused on the remarks about Biden’s memory, which Hur described as “significantly limited.” The report included multiple examples of memory lapses, including the president reportedly forgetting what year he stopped being vice president and when his son Beau died.
Trump has also pointed to the report, his allies claiming a two-tiered system of justice as Trump faces multiple charges related to retaining and sharing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home.
There are significant differences between the two cases, including the degree to which both men cooperated with National Archives requests for documents and the types of documents retained.
The White House pushed back against the statements regarding Biden’s memory, saying Hur overstepped by including that information in the report.
House GOP investigations
Multiple investigations have failed to turn up evidence directly linking Biden to the business dealings of his son, Hunter Biden, or his brother, James Biden, who was deposed last week in a closed-door session.
Most recently, the investigation was dealt a blow when an ex-FBI source was indicted on charges of lying to officials. That indictment specifically referred to the informant’s allegation that Biden had accepted bribes from Ukrainian company Burisma, the allegation upon which House Republicans have built their case against Biden.
The informant, Alexander Smirnov, is being detained pending a trial after a judge ruled he is a flight risk due in part to his overseas connections, which include a link to Russian intelligence.
Hunter Biden is expected to testify in a closed-door deposition on Wednesday as the impeachment inquiry continues.
Aging Candidates
With the complete transcripts, Republicans may also be hoping to turn up damning evidence that Biden’s age and memory make him unfit to hold office. If he wins in November, Biden, already the oldest president, would be 82 when taking office.
Rep. Ken Buck, R-CO, used the information in the report to call on the Cabinet to remove Biden using the 25th Amendment, suggesting the memory lapses make him unfit for the office.
While Republicans have made much of the president’s advanced age, Trump isn’t much younger. The presumed GOP nominee will be 78 on inauguration day in 2025 and has also been criticized for memory lapses on the campaign trail.
Voters have expressed concern about both candidates and enthusiasm isn’t high for what is expected to be a November rematch of the 2020 election. However, Democrats have failed to suggest alternative candidates to Biden and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley has struggled in her efforts to challenge Trump in the primaries.