The Justice Department cannot release audio of President Biden's interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur because of the threat of possible deepfakes, the DOJ argued in a court filing Friday.
The filing came as part of a legal challenge to Biden's efforts to exercise executive privilege over the recording to keep it from the public. The DOJ acknowledged in its Friday filing that there is already enough public audio available to create AI deepfakes of both Biden and Hur, but said releasing the real recording would make it harder to refute false versions.
“The passage of time and advances in audio, artificial intelligence and 'deep fake' technologies only increase concerns about malicious manipulation of audio files. If the audio recording is released here, it is easy to foresee that it could be improperly altered, and that the altered file could have been passed off as an authentic recording and widely distributed,” the department wrote.
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer wrote in the filing that releasing the tape “would make it far more likely that malicious actors could pass off a deepfake as the authentic recording.”
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The Justice Department cannot release audio of President Biden's interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur because of the threat of possible deepfakes, the DOJ says. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The Biden administration is facing numerous attempts by conservative legal groups and Republicans in the House of Representatives to force the release of the audio. The DOJ has already released a transcript of the interview, which revealed several embarrassing moments for the president.
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Biden met with Hur for about five hours last year when he was questioned about his handling of the classified documents.
Hur's report, released earlier this year, stated that Biden was a forgetful but well-meaning older man. The report highlighted several instances in which Biden failed to remember key details about his life, including when he was vice president and the year of his son Beau Biden's death.
The DNC paid lawyers representing President Biden while special counsel Robert Hur investigated his possession of classified documents. (Getty Images)
Biden was outraged by the report and subsequently got caught making a number of false statements about his interview. For example, he claimed that Hur brought up the subject of Beau's death, despite the transcript showing that Biden had brought up the subject.
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“President Biden is apparently afraid that the citizens of this country and everyone will hear those tapes,” says the Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson, R-La., said after Biden asserted privilege over the recording. “They clearly confirm what the special counsel has found and, in his estimation, would likely cause so much anxiety among the American people that the president would use all his power to block their release.”
Biden was furious that Hur's report portrayed him as mentally incompetent and elderly. (Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Some Republicans have speculated that the interview transcript may not match the audio, saying it may have been edited to avoid embarrassing Biden. Weinsheimer rejected those claims in Friday's filing, saying only minor edits were made to the transcript, such as removing repeated words and filler words.
