June 25 (UPI) — The House Judiciary Committee will vote Thursday on whether to hold President Joe Biden‘s ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer in contempt of Congress for failing to turn over audio recordings of conversations with the president.
Thursday morning’s vote on the resolution, which is expected to advance along party lines, will come hours before Biden and former President Donald Trump hold their first of two presidential debates.
In its report released Tuesday, the Republican-led committee outlined the contempt recommendation after requesting documents in February related to Biden’s memoirs. The request followed special counsel Robert Hur’s decision to not recommend charges against Biden over his handling of classified documents, as he called the president a “well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.”
President Biden has asserted executive privilege over the October recordings, despite congressional Republicans’ efforts to obtain them.
In March, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and the committee subpoenaed Zwonitzer over Hur’s report, which stated, “at least three times Biden read classified notes from national security meetings nearly verbatim.”
“Special Counsel Hur’s report unequivocally provides that ‘During many of the interviews with his ghostwriter, Biden read from his notebooks nearly verbatim, sometimes for an hour or more at a time,’ and ‘at least three times Biden read classified notes from national security meetings nearly verbatim,'” Jordan wrote Zwonitzer in February, as the committee requested more information.
“Based on the information in special counsel Hur’s report, President Biden’s assertion that he never shared classified information with you appears to be false,” Jordan added.
According to Tuesday’s report, the committee said Zwonitzer’s attorney had indicated he would produce documents and recordings but later said Zwonitzer would not cooperate without a subpoena.
Hur’s report said Zwonitzer deleted the audio recordings after the investigation was announced, but law enforcement was able to retrieve the audio files. Democrats on the Judiciary Committee published the full transcripts of Biden’s interview in March.
Earlier this month, the House voted to hold U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to hand over the audio recordings of Biden’s interview with Hur. The Justice Department quickly refused to prosecute Garland, saying he is exempt from contempt charges due to Biden’s executive privilege over the recordings.
If Zwonitzer’s contempt resolution advances out of the Judiciary Committee on Thursday, it would move to a full vote on the House floor.