Former special counsel in Biden classified documents probe attacked by both sides in hearing

Former U.S. Justice Department special counsel Robert Hur on Tuesday defended from both Republican and Democratic critics on the U.S. House Judiciary Committee his conclusion that President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents likely broke federal law but was not worthy of prosecution.

Few new facts emerged from the acrimonious five-hour hearing. But Hur’s conclusions gave members of the panel ammunition to promote their party’s presumptive presidential nominee and criticize the other, while also giving each side things to complain about.

Biden knowingly took classified papers in the waning days of his vice presidency and read classified material to a ghostwriter, Hur said. But, the former U.S. attorney from Maryland concluded, a prosecution would likely not yield a conviction and he therefore opted not to recommend charges.

“We identified evidence that the president willfully retained classified materials after the end of his vice presidency when he was a private citizen,” Hur said.

“We did not, however, identify evidence that rose to the level of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Because the evidence fell short of that standard, I declined to recommend criminal charges against Mr. Biden.”

Hur takes issue with Biden rebuttal

Biden’s public response to Hur’s report contained inaccuracies, Hur said.

In a hastily organized news conference the day Hur published his report, Biden said he never shared classified material with his ghostwriter and that all the material in question was either locked away or in areas that could have been locked.

Hur said those descriptions were “inconsistent with the findings of our investigation.”

​​Prosecutors discovered an audio recording of Biden telling his ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer, that he had “found all the classified stuff downstairs,” Hur said. They also discovered that Zwonitzer attempted to delete computer files once Hur was named as special counsel.

Hur defended his finding that a potential jury may have declined to convict Biden of a serious felony because he presents as “an elderly man with a poor memory.”

Biden strongly objected to the characterization, and many of the president’s supporters considered it an unfair criticism from a registered Republican that was extraneous to the investigation.

But Hur said Tuesday it was Biden who raised the issue of his memory.

“We interviewed the president and asked him about his recorded statement ‘Well, I just found all the classified stuff downstairs,’” Hur said. “He told us that he didn’t remember saying that to his ghostwriter. He also said he didn’t remember finding any classified material in his home after his vice presidency. And he didn’t remember anything about how classified documents about Afghanistan made their way into his garage.

“My assessment in the report about the relevance of the president’s memory was necessary and accurate and fair.”

Hur said from the hearing’s outset he was appearing solely to clarify information contained in his report and would decline to expand on any questions beyond the report’s scope.

But committee members seemed less interested in examining the report’s details than in making partisan appeals highlighting sections of the report that could support their party’s candidate for president — Democrats for Biden and Republicans for former President Donald Trump — while finding elements of Hur’s conclusion or process to criticize.

Hur testified as a private citizen no longer associated with the Justice Department, after he resigned from the department Monday.

Republicans see double standard

Several Republicans on the panel noted Hur’s finding that Biden knowingly took classified documents at the end of his vice presidency, held them in unsecured areas and shared them with a ghostwriter.

“Joe Biden kept classified information,” Chairman Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican, said. “Joe Biden failed to properly secure classified information. Joe Biden shared classified information with people he wasn’t supposed to. Joe Biden broke the law. But because he’s a forgetful old man who would appear sympathetic to a jury, Mr. Hur chose not to bring charges.”

Biden received an $8 million advance for a memoir of his vice presidency, Jordan said, citing Hur’s report. Biden used classified materials to inform the book and shared them directly with the ghostwriter, Jordan said.

“He had 8 million reasons” to take classified documents, Jordan said. Doing so put national security at risk, he added.

Republicans also claimed a double standard occurred when Hur declined to prosecute Biden after the U.S. Department of Justice opted to prosecute former Trump on similar charges.

The Trump case, one of four felony prosecutions the former president faces even as his general election campaign against Biden approaches, accuses Trump of keeping classified documents unsecured at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

“Donald Trump’s being prosecuted for exactly the same act that Joe Biden committed,” Rep. Tom McClintock, a Republican of California, told Hur.

A separate special counsel, Jack Smith, oversaw the investigation into Trump. Hur declined to answer questions from Republicans about Smith’s decision to recommend charges against Trump.

Trump has made central to his campaign the idea that political and governmental elites — the so-called deep state that includes the Justice Department — are unfairly targeting him.

He renewed that theme Tuesday in a post about the hearing to his social media site, Truth Social.

“Big day in Congress for the Biden Documents Hoax,” Trump wrote. “He had many times more documents, including classified documents, than I, or any other president, had. He had them all over the place, with ZERO supervision or security. …The DOJ gave Biden, and virtually every other person and President, a free pass. Me, I’m still fighting!!!”

Democrats embrace Trump comparison

Democrats appeared happy to contrast Biden and Trump’s approaches to being investigated.

Hur’s report noted that Biden cooperated with the investigation, authorizing searches of his homes and voluntarily sitting for an interview with prosecutors.

Trump, on the other hand, refused repeated chances to avoid prosecution by returning missing classified material.

Trump is also accused of lying about what documents he still had, Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin said.

The federal indictment against Trump also accused him of obstructing the investigation by hiding documents and destroying incriminating video evidence. And unlike Biden, Trump did not agree to sit for an interview with prosecutors.

“This report is so damning in the contrast between Biden and Trump, it is hard for me to see why our [Republican] colleagues think that this hearing advances their flailing and embarrassing quest to impeach the president of the United States,” Raskin said.

“What America sees today is evidence of one president who believes in the rule of law and works to protect it, and one who has nothing but contempt for the rule of law and acts solely in pursuit of his own constantly multiplying corrupt schemes.”

Several Democrats also said that Biden’s performance at the State of the Union last week should dispel any concerns that the octogenarian’s age is holding him back.

Most important, Democrats said, was the first sentence of Hur’s report that found “no criminal charges are warranted in this matter.”

“President Biden probably committed a verbal slip or two during the interview,” House Judiciary ranking Democrat Jerry Nadler of New York said. “I’m not sure any of that matters, because when the interview was over, Mr. Hur completely exonerated President Biden.”

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