FBI and Associated Investigative Evidence against the Special Counsel’s Report on the Diversion of a Presidential Paper into a Political Controversy

Biden’s attorneys cooperated with investigators after returning the materials. Trump, in contrast, is accused of willfully keeping the records and actively trying to obstruct officials from recovering them.

Trump, on the other hand, is facing more than three dozen federal criminal charges after boxes of classified material were uncovered in unsecure locations at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Fla. The case is being prosecuted by a special counsel and Trump has pleaded not guilty to it.

Democrats had hoped the investigation would wrap up quickly so it would not become an issue in the presidential campaign. The investigation lasted more than a year and now lands in Hur’s report, with Biden set to face off against Trump again in the 2024 campaign.

It would be difficult to convince a jury to convict Biden of a serious felony that required a mental state of willfulness, according to the report. The report said that Biden has trouble remembering details.

FBI agents found handwritten notebooks in unlocked drawers in the office and basement of Biden’s home in Delaware. The report says the evidence shows Biden knew the notebooks contained classified information.

According to the report, the material was proof of Mr. Biden’s stand in relation to one of the most important decisions of his vice presidency.

The materials that were turned over to the National Archives were believed to depict Biden’s time as vice president. Federal agents then found a small number of additional classified documents in a search of Biden’s home in Wilmington, Del. Agents also searched Biden’s vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Del., but did not turn up any sensitive materials.

A Justice Department special counsel has recommended no criminal charges be brought against President Biden in connection with the classified documents that were found at his Delaware home and a think-tank office in Washington, D.C.

“We conclude that no criminal charges are warranted in this matter,” the report says. “We would reach the same conclusion even if Department of Justice policy did not foreclose criminal charges against a sitting president.”

The White House said “we disagree with a number of inaccurate and inappropriate comments in the Special Counsel’s report” on the classified documents, but did not detail what those were.

White House lawyer Richard Sauber said the report shows that Biden cooperated with the investigation and said “mistakes when packing documents … are unfortunately a common occurrence.”

He angrily responded to special counsel Robert Hur’s description of a portion of an interview in which Hur said Biden seemed to not remember when his son, Beau, died.

Biden was asked by a reporter if he was an elderly man and he said, “Well meaning and I’m an elderly man.” I know what I’m doing.

But when he answered a question about current hostage negotiations with Israel and Hamas, Biden mistakenly said that President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi of Egypt was the “president of Mexico.”

In recent days in off-camera events, Biden has thrice mixed up names of foreign leaders, calling French President Emmanuel Macron “Mitterrand” and former German Chancellor Angela Merkel “Helmut Kohl.” France’s Franois Mitterrand and Germany’s Robert Kraus were former heads of state.