White House Admits in Federal Court They ‘Doctored’ Joe Biden’s Special Counsel Testimony Transcript to Make Him Appear Less Incompetent: Report
By Jim Hᴏft Jun. 1, 2024
These blatant alterations were made to artificially inflate Biden’s competence during his five-hour interrogation about his mishandling of classified documents.
Earlier this year, Washington Post reporter Matt Viser revealed that Special Counsel Robert Hur concluded that Joe Biden recklessly mishandled sensitive materials discovered at his home and former office.
Disturbingly, the investigation also uncovered that Biden shared government secrets with his ghostwriter, further underscoring his blatant disregard for national security.
Adding to this damning report, it was revealed that during interviews with the Special Counsel, Biden struggled to answer even basic questions, such as when he served as Vice President or the year his son Beau passed away from brain cancer.
However, the DOJ opted not to bring charges against Biden, citing concerns that a jury would deem him too mentally incompetent to stand trial.
The damning report reads, in part:
In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden’s memory was worse. He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (“if it was 2013 – when did I stop being Vice President?”), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (“in 2009, am I still Vice President?”). He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died.
And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him. Among other things, he mistakenly said he “had a real difference” of opinion with General Karl Eikenberry when, in fact, Eikenberry was an ally whom Mr. Biden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to Barack Obama.
We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.
It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — by then a former president well into his eighties — of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”
The White House confronted a critical decision about releasing the interview transcript. Biden’s legal team contended that Hur’s references to Biden’s memory issues during the interview were misleading and unfairly prejudicial.
Joe Biden attacked Robert Hur during an impromptu presser after the report was released.
“There is even a reference that I don’t remember when my son died. How in the hell dare he raise that?” Biden previously told reporters in an impromptu White House press conference. “Frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself, it wasn’t any of their damn business.”
In March, Republicans planned to hold U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for the Justice Department’s refusal to release the audio recordings of Joe Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur.
“The House Oversight and Judiciary Committees issued lawful subpoenas to Attorney General Garland for the audio recordings of President Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Hur, yet he continues to defy our subpoenas,” House Oversight Chairman James Comer said in a statement. “These audio recordings are important to our investigation of President Biden’s willful retention of classified documents and his fitness to be President of the United States.”
But White House counsel Ed Siskel lashed out at the House GOP in an angry letter, accusing them of only wanting the recordings “to chop them up” and use them for political reasons.
“The absence of a legitimate need for the audio recordings lays bare your likely goal — to chop them up, distort them, and use them for partisan political purposes,” Ed Siskel wrote.
He added, “Demanding such sensitive and constitutionally protected law enforcement materials from the Executive Branch because you want to manipulate them for potential political gain is inappropriate.”
However, new revelations revealed that the White House admitted to altering the transcript of Joe Biden’s testimony to the Special Counsel to make him appear less incompetent.
This not-so-shocking admission comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed by the Heritage Foundation and Judicial Watch against the US Department of Justice, demanding the release of the original recording of Biden’s testimony.
Unsurprisingly, Biden’s allies within the Justice Department have vehemently opposed this filing, aiming to delay or even prevent its release until after the upcoming election, according to Oversight Project, launched by The Heritage Foundation in January 2022, which aims to increase aggressive oversight of the Biden administration and its policies.
Mike Howell, Executive Director of the Heritage Oversight Project, expressed disappointment but not surprise at these delaying tactics.
“While we are disappointed with the Court’s decision, we appreciate the prompt and careful thought the Court is devoting to this case,” he said. “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. Instead, President Biden is having his Richard Nixon moment. If he wants to drag this out then it just means this chapter of corruption will be even longer,” he added.
President Biden has personally invoked Executive Privilege against The Heritage Foundation and Judicial Watch in an attempt to keep his controversial interview with Special Counsel Hur under wraps.
Now, with the White House admitting to doctoring the transcript, the case has been blown wide open, according to the organization.
“WHITE HOUSE ADMITS THEY DOCTORED BIDEN’S CRIMINAL TRANSCRIPT,” the Oversight Project wrote.
“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,” it added.
Tom Fitton, founder of Judicial Watch, wrote, “Official transcript does not match the Biden audio tapes in the Hur investigation. Biden admin forced to admit to inaccurate transcript in court filing in Judicial Watch Federal FOA lawsuit. There is nothing ordinary about this and the transcript inaccuracy issues seem to help Mr. Biden political campaign needs.”
According to the court filing:
“The interview transcripts are accurate transcriptions of the words of the interview contained in the audio recording, except for minor instances such as the use of filler words (such as “um” or “uh”) when speaking that are not always reflected on the transcripts, or when words may have been repeated when spoken (such as “I, I” or “and, and”‘) but sometimes was only listed a single time in the transcripts.
Besides these exceedingly minor differences, based on my simultaneous review of the transcripts while listening to the audio recording, the transcripts accurately capture the words spoken during the interview on the audio recording with no material differences between the audio recording and transcripts. None of the minor differences include any audible substantive exchanges – that is, based on my review, there is no material omission of words between the audio recording and transcripts.
Special Counsel Hur and FBI personnel who attended the interview and compared the audio recording to the transcripts also informed me of their determination that the transcripts accurately reflect the words spoken on the audio recording aside from the minor instances I described above. Special Counsel Hur emphasized to me that it was important for purposes of his investigation that the interview transcripts be accurate.”
