Attorney General Merrick Garland REJECTS claims Biden is an ‘elderly man with a bad memory’ during grilling by Republicans over classified documents report

Attorney General Merrick Garland insisted Joe Biden has no cognitive impairment as he was forced to defend the president on Capitol Hill after a bombshell report described him as ‘elderly’ and ‘forgetful’.

“The president has no disability,” Garland said as Republicans hounded him over former special counsel Robert Hur’s report.

“I have watched him expertly moderate meetings between staff and cabinet members on issues of foreign affairs and military strategy and policy in the incredibly complex world that we now face.”

Garland continued: ‘I don’t know how many ways I can say this, I have complete confidence in the president.’

That puts Garland at odds with the special counsel he appointed, who resigned from the Justice Department shortly after releasing the report explaining why he did not indict the president for mishandling classified documents.

Republicans once again demanded that Garland release audio of Hur’s interview with Biden.

While the DOJ has released transcripts of Hur’s interviews with Biden that led him to conclude that the president is ‘older’ and ‘well meaning’ but has a ‘bad memory’, Republicans are unhappy. They insist they also need audio from the interview.

They subpoenaed transcripts, notes, audio and video files largely related to Hur’s interview — giving State Attorney Merrick Garland until noon Monday and threatening him with contempt if he doesn’t comply.

The DOJ said in a new letter to GOP committee chairmen that the department had already been “extraordinarily” accommodating in giving up the Biden transcript.

They said releasing audio could also make it harder for prosecutors to secure taped interviews in the future, where witnesses know they could be leaked to the public.

“The committees have already received the extraordinary adaptation of the transcripts which gives you the information you say you need,” read the letter, written by Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte.

“Moving forward by producing the audio files would increase the likelihood that future prosecutors will not be able to secure this level of cooperation. They may have a more difficult time even obtaining consent to an interview. It is clearly not in the public interest to make such cooperation with prosecutors and investigators less likely in the future.’

The letter said the Oversight and Judiciary Committee has identified no valid justification for needing the audio of the interview in addition to transcripts.

It said the DOJ had “met or exceeded the committees’ information needs” listed in the subpoenas.

“Our collaborative efforts prove that we are and continue to be willing to do our part to show the American people that the public servants who serve them can work together productively in the public interest while avoiding unnecessary conflict,” continued Uriarte.

Oversight Chairman James Comer hit back in a statement: ‘The Biden administration cannot determine what Congress needs and does not need for its oversight of the executive branch.’

‘It is strange that the Biden administration refuses to release the audio of President Biden’s interview with the special counsel after releasing the transcript. Why should the American people not be able to hear the actual audio of his response? The American people demand transparency from their leaders, not obstruction.’

“Yet the committees have responded with escalation and threats of criminal contempt. The committee’s reaction is difficult to explain in terms of a lack of information or frustration with any need for information or investigation, given the actual behavior of the department. We are therefore concerned that the Committees are disappointed, not because you did not receive information, but because you did. We urge the committees to avoid conflict rather than seek it.’

Hur, who had interviewed Biden on October 8 and 9, 2023, resigned as special counsel and left the DOJ shortly before testifying in Congress last month.

He found that Biden had “intentionally” retained classified material but stopped short of filing charges, believing that a jury would not convict the president.

He sparked opposition from all sides — Republicans who questioned why he would not impeach the president and Democrats who took issue with his description of Biden as a “likable, well-meaning, older man with a bad memory.”

He explained his decision to make the assessment in the hearing: ‘I knew that because my position was credible. I couldn’t just announce that there would be no fees, I had to explain why. I needed to show my work.’

“We have identified evidence that the president knowingly retained classified material after the end of his vice presidential term when he was a private citizen,” Hur said during a high-level hearing earlier this month.

In interviews with investigators, Biden became confused about the dates he was vice president and could not even remember the year his son Beau died, according to the transcript reviewed by DailyMail.com.

Biden forgot the year Beau died when Trump was elected and said ‘I don’t remember’, ‘I don’t remember’ and ‘I have no idea’ more than 100 times while cracking jokes and making car noises with the investigators.

And it said his cavalier attitude toward classified documents, such as his habit of reading sensitive files to a ghostwriter, posed a significant national security risk.

One of the reasons they decided not to press charges was that ‘at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview with him, as a likable, well-meaning older man with a bad memory .’

Hur said during testimony that he described Biden this way because of his “inability to remember certain things” and that he had to be asked by his lawyers to remember certain dates.

According to transcripts of Hur’s interviews with Biden on Oct. 8 and Oct. 9, 2023, Biden’s attorney had to tell him the year his son Beau died of brain cancer, and the president joked that the special counsel found photos of his wife Jill in a bathing suit .

I just hope you didn’t find any risque pictures of my wife in a bathing suit. Which you probably did. She’s beautiful,” Biden said.

“What month did Beau die?” Biden mused at one point, adding: ‘Oh God, May 30.’

“He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died. And his memory seemed hazy as he described the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him,’ Hur said.

A lawyer from the White House then chimed in with the year 2015.

‘Was it 2015 he died?’ Biden asked.