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Attorney General Merrick Garland

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Win McNamee/Getty Images

Attorney General Merrick Garland

Win McNamee/Getty Images

The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday pushed back on House Republicans’ plan to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt over the department’s refusal to hand over an audio recording of a a special counsel’s interview with the president.

“It is the longstanding position of the executive branch held by administrations of both parties that an official who asserts the President’s claim of executive privilege cannot be prosecuted for criminal contempt of Congress,” Assistant Attorney Genral Carlos Uriarte said in a letter to Rep. Jim Jordan, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee.

House Republicans had demanded an audio recording of the interview Special Counsel Robert Hur conducted with President Biden. The Justice Department had provided the relevant panels a transcript of the interview. In his report, Hur described Biden as “an elderly man with a poor memory,” remarks that angered the White House and its Democratic allies.

Separately, Attorney General Merrick Garland wrote in a letter to President Biden that the “audio recordings of your interview … fall within the scope of executive privilege.”

“Production of these recordings to the Committees would raise an unacceptable risk of undermining the Department’s ability to conduct similar high-profile criminal investigations-in particular, investigations where the voluntary cooperation of White House officials is exceedingly important,” he wrote.

This story will be updated