Trump administration officials are preparing to release the audio from special counsel Robert Hur's interview with former President Joe Biden during the mishandling of classified documents investigation.
Hur said he did not criminally charge Biden with mishandling documents due to the president's age and mental acuity following the October 2023 interview.
In May 2024, Biden asserted executive privilege over audio of the interview. The transcript had been released two months earlier.
Biden and his staff are girding for the possible release, though it remained unclear whether President Donald Trump and his advisers have made a final decision to make the audio public, Politico reported Wednesday night.
"The Hur audio will confirm what is one of the biggest cover-ups in American history," Mike Davis, an occasional Trump adviser, told Politico.
The media outlet later reported that the former president had hired Chris Meagher, a former deputy press secretary and Defense Department spokesperson, to help schedule appearances and defend the former president's legacy.
Last month, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Americans would be "quite interested" to hear the audio recordings of Hur's interview with Biden
"I don't have an update on that, but I can certainly check," Leavitt said April 8 after being asked if the audio would be released. "I think the American people would be quite interested to hear that tape, but I'll double-check on the release of it."
The House Judiciary Committee last year sued to obtain the audio but that lawsuit has lingered since Trump took office.
Two Freedom of Information Act lawsuits brought by conservative groups have resulted in the Justice Department facing a May 20 deadline to say whether it will stand by Biden's assertion of executive privilege to block the release of the audio.
Until now, DOJ officials have said disclosure of the audio would invade Biden's privacy and could deter future cooperation from other government officials.
The transcript of the interview indicated Biden lied to the American people when he rebuked Hur for asking about his son's death.
The transcript exposes the fact Hur never asked Biden about the timing of his son's death, contradicting the president's indignant public objections to that supposed line of questioning.