Heritage Foundation urges federal judge to expedite court fight over Hur recordings

The Heritage Foundation urged a United States District Court judge on Friday to speed up a series of cases related to the release of special counsel Robert Hur's audio recordings of an interview with President Joe Biden.

Biden invoked executive privilege over the recordings on Thursday, after House Republicans subpoenaed the recordings to check Biden's cognitive and mental capabilities. Hur asserted that Biden had a "poor memory" in a report summarizing his investigation into Biden's handling of classified documents from when he was vice president.

Lawyers for the foundation claimed Biden's invocation of executive privilege made three Freedom of Information Act cases more imperative. Heritage also claimed the Justice Department did not need the time it previously claimed it did, because Attorney General Merrick Garland requested the executive privilege order on Wednesday and received it just a day later.

“The Department’s asserted time constraints were misleading,” attorney Samuel Dewey wrote in the court filing, per Politico. “The Department did not need the time to prepare a position and declarations it twice told the Court it did. A formal assertion of Executive Privilege is an extraordinary undertaking.”

Dewey requested that the deadline for the Justice Department to make its case for executive privilege be set for May 27, and file all other briefings necessary for the case by July 1, which is faster than the deadline imposed by  U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly. Kelly gave the DOJ until May 31 to make their case, and July 29 to file their briefings.

The FOIA requests were filed separately by Heritage, CNN, and the conservative group Judicial Watch. 

White House Counsel Edward Siskel and Garland have defended the need for executive privilege, stating that it was necessary to encourage cooperation in future investigations. 

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just the News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.