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The Executive Branch Must Act Within Its Authority

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Published in Galveston County Daily News June 28, 2024 In January 2023 Attorney General Garland appointed Robert Hur as special counsel in the Joe Biden classified documents case to examine “the possible unauthored removal and retention of classified documents…” discovered at the Biden’s Delaware and Washington residences. Hur conducted and determined Biden had, indeed, “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen.”  However, he didn’t recommend bringing charges because Biden was decrepit with a poor memory and prospective jurors might be disinclined to convict him of a “serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”  Hur’s report said his interview with Biden was “painfully slow” and that the President didn’t remember when he was vice president or when his son Beau died.  A written transcript of the interview was provided to Congress in response to a subpoena but when the committee asked for a copy of a tape of the interview Attorney General Garland advised, and Biden asserted, executive privilege – basing the move on an opinion by former Bush Attorney General Michael Mukasey. In the 2008 opinion, Mukasey asserted the disclosure of the requested information would chill deliberations among future White House officials. In response the Heritage Foundation’s Oversignt Project sued for release of the recordings in order to determine the extent the White House “doctored” the written transcripts; something the White House has admitted to doing to make Biden sound more coherent.  In a June 18th declaration former AG Mukasey supported the concept of executive privilege but stated Biden’s application goes well beyond the intent of the doctrine.  He highlighted some glaring differences between Biden’s assertions and the 2008 circumstances.  For one, the 2008 issue was over “frank and candid deliberations among senior presidential advisors” and communications with the President.  By contrast, the Biden-Hur interview didn’t “touch on official White House business, let alone sensitive deliberations of presidential advisers, but only private conduct,” Mukasey said. Secondly, he pointed out, the Bush-era documents still remain confidential while the supposedly verbatim transcript of the Hur-Biden interview has already been released and made public.  Additionally, the Biden case deals with actions taken he took as a private citizen while the Bush-era case dealt with official governmental actions. “I believe the public has an overwhelming interest in hearing the audio recordings,” Mukasey said. Information that cannot be gleaned from “cold” transcripts would be discernable – demeanor, credibility, and mental acuity – and would give insight to Hur’s ultimate decision not to recommend charges. According to the former Attorney General, efforts to hide the tapes strongly suggest the Biden Administration believes their release would “prove embarrassing to the President and politically damaging” which Mukasey says is hardly a justifiable reason to assert executive privilege. We concur with Mukasey.  The Biden Administration and Merrick Garland are trying to hide private individual behavior and not to protect actions taken between the President and his advisers.  But then, again, it is not unusual for this Administration to turn a blind eye to living within the confines of the law.
	About the Authors and Columnists 2024 Bill Sargent and Mark Mansius have written over 275 guest columns and editorials over the last ten years and continue to do so. Bill lives in Galveston, Texas and Mark in St. Georges, Utah. Both ran against each other in the 2012 Republican Primary for Texas Congressional District 14, since then they have become close friends and colleagues.
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