This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Joe Biden's Department of Justice has refused to comply with a congressional request for audio recordings of special counsel Robert Hurt's interviews with Biden, and then its officials went even further, scolding members of Congress for asking for the information.

Hur is the prosecutor who was tasked with investigating Biden's possession of classified government documents, found stashed in his offices, home, and even unsecured garage.

Congress is investigating Biden now for possible impeachment.

While Hur found extensive evidence that Biden did, in fact, willfully and knowingly take classified documents to which he was not entitled, he recommended against charges, pointing out Biden's obviously "diminished" mental capacity.

Now the Daily Mail reports that while the DOJ, run by Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland, provided transcripts of those interviews, it refused to allow access to the recordings, and then punched back at members of Congress.

"We urge the committees to avoid conflict rather than seek it," charged Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte in a letter to members of Congress.

The DOJ claimed that releasing the audio of the interviews could make it harder in the future for prosecutors to get cooperation from witnesses.

Uriarte claimed the DOJ already had given Congress "the information you saw you need."

"To go further by producing the audio files would compound the likelihood that future prosecutors will be unable to secure this level of cooperation. They might have a harder time obtaining consent to an interview at all. It is not in the public interest to render such cooperation with prosecutors and investigators less likely in the future," he claimed.

The House Oversight and Judiciary Committees are among those involved in the investigation of Biden's behaviors as potential support for impeachment.

Among the pertinent issues are the Biden family's apparent influence-peddling operations, where members got millions of dollars apparently for nothing more than providing access to Joe Biden, the family's various international business schemes, and, not the least, Joe Biden's mental capacities.

Evidence suggests that at one point, when Biden was creating a post-vice presidency book, he told a ghostwriter about classified documents he had, and even read portions to the ghostwriter, who later deleted those recordings but has not been charged.

Congress had subpoenaed transcripts, notes, audio and video files of Hur's interviews, giving AG Merrick Garland until Monday noon to comply or risk contempt of Congress.

Hur interviewed Biden on October 8 and 9, 2023, then resigned as special counsel and left the DOJ shortly before testifying in Congress last month.

Hur confirmed he found Biden "willfully" retained classified material but stopped short of filing charges.

The report also confirmed what is known about Biden: He "became muddled about the dates he was vice president and could not even remember the year in which his son Beau died," the report said.