House Republicans Sue Garland for Audio of Biden Interviews With Special Counsel

House Republicans on Monday filed a federal lawsuit against Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, asking a judge to force him to hand over audio recordings of President Biden’s interview with the special counsel who raised questions about his age and memory.

The suit, filed on behalf of the House Judiciary Committee in the U.S. District Court in Washington, seeks recordings of interviews that the special counsel, Robert K. Hur, conducted with Mr. Biden and Mark Zwonitzer, a ghostwriter, while investigating the president’s handling of classified materials.

In a report in February, Mr. Hur recommended no criminal charges, but his description of Mr. Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” and one who had “diminished faculties in advancing age” supercharged concerns about how fit Mr. Biden, now 81, is for his job.

The House Republicans’ lawsuit came just days after Mr. Biden’s halting performance in a televised presidential debate against former President Donald J. Trump — in which he gave unclear answers, repeatedly appeared to lose his train of thought and struggled to deliver his campaign message — prompted fresh questions about whether he should continue his run.

The Justice Department has provided the Judiciary Committee with transcripts of the interviews, but not the audio.

“Failure to require the production of the audio recordings would impermissibly impede the committee’s ability to exercise the House’s constitutionally delegated oversight and impeachment functions,” Matthew B. Berry, the House general counsel, wrote in the lawsuit.