WASHINGTON — House Republicans filed a lawsuit Monday against Attorney General Merrick Garland for the audio recording of President Joe Biden’s interview with a special counsel in his classified documents case, asking the courts to enforce their subpoena and reject the White House’s effort to withhold the materials from Congress.

The lawsuit filed by the House Judiciary Committee marks Republicans’ latest broadside against the Justice Department as partisan conflict over the rule of law animates the 2024 presidential campaign. The legal action comes weeks after the White House blocked Garland from releasing the audio recording to Congress by asserting executive privilege.

Republicans in the House responded by voting to make Garland the third attorney general in U.S. history to be held in contempt of Congress. But the Justice Department refused to take up the contempt referral, citing the agency’s “longstanding position and uniform practice” to not prosecute officials who don’t comply with subpoenas because of a president’s claim of executive privilege.

Garland has defended the agency, saying officials have gone to extraordinary lengths to provide information to the committees about special counsel Robert Hur’s classified documents investigation, including a transcript of Biden’s interview with him.

The congressional inquiry began with the release of Hur’s report in February, which found evidence that Biden, a Democrat, willfully retained and shared highly classified information when he was a private citizen. Yet the special counsel concluded that criminal charges were not warranted.

Republicans, incensed by Hur’s decision, issued a subpoena for audio of his interviews with Biden during the spring. But the Justice Department turned over only some of the records, leaving out audio of the interview with the president.

Republicans say access to the audio recordings and the transcripts are warranted to determine whether legislative reforms need to be put in place for the storage, handling and disclosure of sensitive documents by members of the executive branch.

4 charged in Russian plot: Ukraine’s security service said Monday that it had foiled another Russian plot to stir public unrest and then use the ensuing turmoil to topple the government, outlining a familiar tactic that Kyiv claims has been employed in a string of coup attempts in recent years.

The Ukrainian domestic intelligence agency, the SBU, said it had discovered a “group” of conspirators it accused of planning to spark a riot, seize the parliament building and replace the nation’s military and civilian leadership. Four people have been arrested and charged, according to the authorities.

While offering little detail on how such an ambitious plan could have succeeded, officials said it was a reminder that more than two years after launching a full-scale invasion of the country, the Kremlin remained determined to bring down Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government by any means.

$4B suit over Hamas attack: Victims of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel sued Iran, Syria and North Korea on Monday, saying their governments supplied the militants with money, weapons and know-how needed to carry out the assault that precipitated Israel’s war in Gaza.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New York, seeks at least $4 billion in damages for “a coordination of extrajudicial killings, hostage takings, and related horrors for which the defendants provided material support and resources.”

Iran’s mission to the United Nations declined to comment on the allegations, while Syria and North Korea did not respond.

Because such countries rarely abide by court rulings against them in the United States, if the lawsuit’s plaintiffs are successful, they could seek compensation from a fund created by Congress that allows American victims of terrorism to receive payouts. The money comes from seized assets, fines or other penalties leveled against those that, for example, do business with a state sponsor of terrorism.

The lawsuit doesn’t provide specific evidence that Tehran, Damascus or Pyongyang knew in advance about the assault. It accuses the three countries of providing weapons, technology and financial support necessary for the attack to occur.

US raises security threat: The U.S. military has raised the security protection measures it is taking at its bases throughout Europe, asking service members to be more vigilant and keep a lower profile due to a combination of threats it is seeing across the region.

U.S. European Command said in a statement Sunday that a “variety of factors play into the safety of U.S. military community abroad.”

Increasing the threat level to Charlie, the second highest of five levels for service members, is the result of a combination of events occurring across Europe, including elections in France and the U.K., the Olympics and other major sporting events, and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide more details. But they said they were unaware of any specific threat.

Menendez bribery trial: Sen. Bob Menendez’s sister came to her brother’s defense Monday, testifying at the start of the defense presentation at his bribery trial that she wasn’t surprised to learn that the Democrat stored cash at home.

Caridad Gonzalez, 80, was called by Menendez’s lawyers to support their argument that hundreds of thousands of dollars found in Menendez’s residence during a 2022 raid was not unusual for a man whose parents fled Cuba in 1951 with only the cash hidden at home.

“It’s normal. It’s a Cuban thing,” she said when she was asked for her reaction to Menendez directing her to pull $500 in $100 bills from a boot-sized box in a closet of his daughter’s bedroom in the 1980s when she worked for him as a legal secretary.

Menendez, 70, is on trial with two New Jersey businessmen who pleaded not guilty after they were accused of paying him bribes to get favors that would aid them in their business and investment pursuits.

Chinese rocket fails: A commercial Chinese rocket accidentally launched during a routine ground test Sunday, climbing into the air before crashing into a nearby mountain and exploding in flames, the private company that owns the rocket said.

Because of a “structural failure,” the Tianlong-3 rocket separated from its testing platform while its propulsion system was being tested and lifted off from its launchpad, Space Pioneer said. After launching, the onboard computer automatically shut down, and the rocket fell into a hilly area about one mile from the test site. No one was injured.