Did Biden’s Ghostwriter Admit He Obstructed the Investigation of Joe Biden?Matt Margolis
Joe Biden avoided facing charges of mishandling classified information because Special Counsel Robert Hur determined that a jury would see him as an “elderly man with a poor memory” who lacked the “mental state of willfulness.” However, there was an unresolved issue regarding Biden’s ghostwriter, to whom Biden disclosed classified information while working on his memoir.
According to the Hur report, “after learning of the special counsel’s appointment in this matter, Mr. Biden’s ghostwriter deleted audio recordings he had created of his discussions with Mr. Biden during the writing of Mr. Biden’s 2017 memoir”; however, Hur decided not to charge him with obstruction of justice.
Joe Biden’s ghostwriter has now admitted that he deleted those recordings from his interviews with Joe Biden partly so Hur’s team could not use them in the investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents.
According to a transcript released by the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project, ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer wouldn’t tell the FBI how much the investigation influenced his decision to delete the recordings.
“The outside observer is going to look at this and say, Mark Zwonitzer, President Biden’s friend, ghostwriter, collaborator learned of the special counsel’s investigation, saw this was happening and then deleted all these audio recordings,” the agent said. “I just need the truth on this one … That was part of your motivation, at least something you were aware of when you did this?”
“I’m not going to say how much of the percentage it was of my motivation,” Zwonitzer replied, adding, “I was aware that there was an investigation.” He went on to note that he was “very concerned” about being hacked by those who would then spread the audio all over the internet, but said that was mainly because there was “a lot of personal stuff and emotional stuff about Beau,” Biden’s late son. He said out of an abundance of caution, he “took the audio files subfolder from both the G drive and [his] laptop, and slid them into the trash.”
Zwonitzer noted that deleting audio files was standard practice, and not just something he did in Biden’s case, saying, “I generally save transcripts but I haven’t over the years ever saved audios.” He went on to admit he deleted the files after becoming aware of the investigation, and that after doing so, he didn’t tell anyone, nor did nobody reach out to him asking about it.
When he testified before Congress, Hur described Zwonitzer’s actions as destroying evidence.
“What did that ghostwriter do with the information Joe Biden shared with him on his laptop? What did he do after you were named special counsel?” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) asked Hur.
“If I remember correctly, he slid those files into his recycle bin on his computer,” Hur replied.
“He tried to destroy the evidence, didn’t he,” Jordan followed up.
Zwonitzer knew there was an investigation, yet he deleted evidence anyway. It sounds to me like he admitted to obstruction of justice. Why wasn’t he charged?
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