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The White House has admitted in a bombshell court filing that officials there edited Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur so that the president would appear more mentally competent, according to the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project.
The finding follows Special Counsel Robert Hurt’s release of his report in February on President Biden’s mishandling of classified materials. Classified documents were discovered in several homes and office buildings associated with Biden, including an office in Philadelphia and his garage in Wilmington, Delaware.
While former President Trump faces numerous federal charges for allegedly mishandling documents—in a case where Special Counsel Jack Smith has admitted to tampering with evidence—Biden has not been charged.
Neither former President Bill Clinton nor former Vice President Mike Pence has been charged for possessing classified documents.
While Hur’s report confirmed that Biden did mishandle classified documents, the special counsel chose not to file charges, suggesting that a jury might perceive the president as a forgetful, elderly man. The report raised concerns about Biden’s mental fitness, highlighting his inability to recall several key details about his life, such as when he served as vice president and when his son Beau passed away.
The report also noted several unusual speaking patterns exhibited by the president, including making “car noises” during the interview. Hur added for good measure he believed Biden suffered from “diminished faculties in advancing age.”
In the weeks following those stunning revelations, House Republicans and several legal groups have demanded that the audio of Hur’s interview with Biden be made public. However, Biden has refused to release the audio, citing executive privilege.
On Saturday, the situation took a dramatic turn when the Heritage Foundation disclosed that interview transcripts had been edited to remove signs of Biden’s cognitive decline. The foundation’s Oversight Project was able to obtain a court document where the White House acknowledged making these edits, which provided this information.
“The interview transcripts are accurate transcriptions of the words in the interview contained in the audio recording, except for minor instances such as the use of filler words (such as ‘um’ or ‘uh’) that are not always reflected on the transcripts,” the filing reads. “Or when words are repeated when spoken such as (‘I, I’ or ‘and, and’) but sometimes was only listed a single time in the transcripts.”
The White House filing acknowledges that any of Biden’s signature slurred words and repetitions were indeed edited out of the audio recording.
“After being forced into Federal court by us, the White House admits they altered evidence to make Biden appear less incompetent. This case has been blown wide open,” the Oversight Project wrote in a statement.
“The real question is why are we in Court at all? This tape belongs to the American People and there is no legitimate argument to not give it to them. The idea that the DOJ needs months to send over a recording is absurd on its face. They should save the taxpayers millions of dollars in legal fees and just hit the send button,” said Oversight Project executive director Mike Howell.
“President Biden is having his Richard Nixon moment,” he added. “If he wants to drag this out then it just means this chapter of corruption will be even longer.”
Last month, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) agreed with Fox News host Sean Hannity during an interview that Attorney General Merrick Garland’s refusal to hand over a recorded interview to his committee between former special counsel Hur and Biden is akin to tipping the 2024 election scale in favor of the president.
“By the way, Joe Biden has already waived executive privilege when he released everything, including the transcript,” Jordan told Hannity at the time.
“We just want the best evidence so we can evaluate if the Department of Justice is truly being independent and impartial, which is our job under the Constitution. That’s why we held him in contempt, and it passed out of the committee earlier today,” he added.