The GOP-led House Judiciary Committee sued Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday, requesting that a judge order the audio of President Joe Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur be released. 

Earlier this year, the Biden administration asserted executive privilege to block release of the audio of the two-day interview in which Hur pressed the president over his handling of classified documents. The lawsuit from the Judiciary Committee says Biden’s assertion of executive privilege is “frivolous” and the audio of the interviews is important for lawmaker’s inquiry into the Justice Department’s handling of the Biden documents investigation. 

“The Committee thus needs those recordings to assess the Special Counsel’s characterization of the President, which he and White House lawyers have forcefully disputed, and ultimate recommendation that President Biden should not be prosecuted,” the suit says.

Hur recommended no charges for Biden despite the fact he found Biden improperly retained classified documents while out of office, noting his team found that Biden struggled to remember the dates his son died or when he was vice president.

A jury would view Biden, who is now 81, as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” Hur’s report concluded.

The House Judiciary Committee suit asks the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to overrule the assertion of executive privilege and make Garland produce the tapes. House lawmakers say the audio will provide important verbal and nonverbal context missing from the transcripts of the interview that have been made available. 

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“That verbal and nonverbal context is quite important here because the Special Counsel relied on the way that President Biden presented himself during their interview — ’as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory’ — when ultimately recommending that President Biden should not be prosecuted for unlawfully retaining and disclosing classified information,” the suit says.

“The audio recordings, not the cold transcripts, are the best available evidence of how President Biden presented himself during the interview,” the suit adds. 

House Republicans previously voted to hold Garland in contempt over the tapes, but the DOJ declined to prosecute.

A California Democrat was restrained by his fellow lawmakers when he stood up and began moving toward a Republican member during debate over a bill about schools informing parents when children announce new gender identities.

According to video of the Thursday incident, Assemblyman Dr. Corey Jackson, a Democrat, reacted to something inaudible said by Assemblyman Bill Essayli, a Republican. Both assemblymen represent neighboring districts in the southern part of the state, southwest of Los Angeles.  

“You’d better watch yourself,” Jackson can be heard saying several times.

“He’s not going to smack his gums over here today,” Jackson said.

Jackson then got up from his chair and began physically pushing against lawmakers who were trying to restrain him.

“I went blank. I lost it,” Jackson later told the Los Angeles Times.

Debate on AB 1955 in the CA Assembly just went off the rails.

Bill would prohibit California schools from having parental notification policies if a student is transgender. @billessayli had his mic cut for discussing bill from last year, lawmakers raise numerous points of… pic.twitter.com/mcxVkBKnJ7

— Ashley Zavala (@ZavalaA) June 27, 2024

Now getting very chaotic in the Assembly. Multiple members hold back @AsmCoreyJackson as he shouts at @billessayli. pic.twitter.com/BILPHalCFJ

— Alexei Koseff (@akoseff) June 27, 2024

The bill at the center of the incident, Assembly Bill 1955, would prohibit school districts from having policies that require schools to tell parents when their child expresses a new gender identity. It would also shield teachers who supported children’s new gender identities from retaliation.

“LGBTQ+ pupils have the right to express themselves freely at school without fear, punishment, or retaliation, including that teachers or administrators might ‘out’ them without their permission,” the bill reads. “Policies that require outing pupils without their consent violate pupils’ rights to privacy and self-determination.”

The Assembly ultimately voted 61-16 in favor of the bill, which goes to Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk for consideration. Newsom has not yet signed it.

Before the situation on the floor spiraled, Assembly Speaker Jim Wood (D) had interrupted Essayli, the Republican.

“I am tired of being interrupted by you,” Essayli told the speaker, prompting Wood to cut his microphone.

A vote to allow Essayli to continue with the floor debate failed. Then Assemblyman Rick Chavez Zbur, a Democrat from Hollywood, took the floor and began speaking about his personal coming out as LGBT. Essayli raised a point of order over Zbur talking about his personal life, and the situation deteriorated from there.

At one point, Essayli compared the Democrat leadership to “the Chinese Communist Party.”

When he was eventually allowed to speak, Essayli told his fellow lawmakers, “We stand with you. We do not want anyone to be bullied or hurt or erased or any of this stuff.”

“When a child is going through this, it’s a very difficult and emotional time,” Essayli said. “We do not believe that the government — the schools — have any authority to withhold information from parents at all, period.”

The bill comes in the wake of parental notification policies in several major school districts in California, which have been challenged by the state attorney general.