CNN
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The Division of Justice says it received’t present Congress with the audio tapes from Particular Counsel Robert Hur’s interviews with President Joe Biden regardless of threats from Home Republicans to carry Lawyer Common Merrick Garland in legal contempt.

In a brand new letter obtained by CNN, DOJ stated it could not be turning over the audio tapes by the deadline Republicans set for them. The division famous the committees have already got the entire transcripts of the interviews they requested from Hur’s investigation into Biden’s dealing with of labeled paperwork, together with the transcripts of interviews with the president and along with his ghostwriter, which the division turned over Monday.

It’s not but clear if Home Republicans will perform their risk to carry Garland, a prime GOP goal, in contempt of Congress for failing to totally adjust to a congressional subpoena. CNN has reached out to the committees of jurisdiction for remark.

“We urge the Committees to keep away from battle moderately than search it,” Assistant Lawyer Common Carlos Felipe Uriarte wrote in a letter to the committees, arguing that the division has complied with the requests.

“Our productions on every of the 4 subpoena objects have met or exceeded the committee’s acknowledged informational wants,” he wrote.

Uriarte stated Republicans didn’t have a legislative justification for subpoenaing the audio tapes given they’ve the transcripts and accused Republicans of escalating the problem as “battle for battle’s sake.”

“The Division is anxious that the committees’ specific deal with persevering with to demand info that’s cumulative of knowledge we already gave you — what the President and Mr. Hur’s group stated within the interview — signifies that the committees’ pursuits will not be in receiving info in service of authentic oversight or investigatory features, however to serve political functions that should not have any function within the remedy of regulation enforcement recordsdata,” Uriarte wrote.

Uriarte additionally argued that producing the audio tapes might hurt future investigations. “To go additional by producing the audio recordsdata would compound the probability that future prosecutors can be unable to safe this stage of cooperation,” he wrote.

“They could have a tougher time acquiring consent to an interview in any respect,” Uriarte continued. “It’s clearly not within the public curiosity to render such cooperation with prosecutors and investigators much less probably sooner or later.”