Previously undisclosed letters reveal the White House’s simmering frustration with DOJ over the special counsel’s report.
POLITICO
The day before the special counsel report on Joe Biden became public, the White House wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland strenuously objecting to the report’s comments on the president’s memory.
Special counsel Robert Hur “openly, obviously, and blatantly” violated the Justice Department’s own policies, White House Counsel Ed Siskel wrote Garland in a previously undisclosed letter.
It wasn’t the first time the White House weighed in on Hur’s report. Months earlier, shortly after Hur had interviewed Biden, another White House lawyer urged the special counsel to make his final report “economical,” arguing that a succinct, straightforward approach devoid of commentary would adhere to Justice Department principles.
Hur didn’t take that advice. Instead, he wrote a report that rocked Washington with its detailed descriptions of Biden’s forgetfulness and its assessment that the president came across as “a well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Hur concluded that criminal charges were not warranted over Biden’s mishandling of classified documents before he became president. But the political damage was undeniable.
The president’s lawyers reviewed a draft before its public release on Feb. 8, and they objected. On Feb. 7, the president’s personal lawyer Bob Bauer joined Siskel on the letter sent directly to Garland. They didn’t ask Garland to take any action, but they put their concerns on the record.
They got a response the next day from the department’s top career official, Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer. He sent the lawyers a concise defense of the contents of Hur’s report and the decision to make it public — and he said, on behalf of the Justice Department, that the report was “near the apex of the public interest.”
After the report’s release, the president’s lawyers kept registering their disapproval — both publicly and privately. On Feb. 12, they fired back at Weinsheimer in another letter, charging him with harboring “a disturbing lack of concern” about the Justice Department’s power to malign innocent people.
