Report on the Special Counsel Robert Hur’s Investigation of Presidential Manipulations During his Vice-Presidency, and a Report by the White House
No charges will be filed regarding President Biden’s handling of classified material. Special counsel Robert Hur concluded in his report that the evidence investigators uncovered falls short of “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials.
Some boxes of classified material were found at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida and he is facing over 30 federal criminal charges. Trump and his associates have pleaded not guilty in the federal case, which is being prosecuted by special counsel Jack Smith.
Democrats hoped the investigation would be finished quickly so they wouldn’t have to deal with it in the campaign. Instead, the probe lasted well over a year and Hur’s report now lands as Biden and Trump prepare to face off again in the next presidential election.
How dare he raise that? Biden said, adding it was “none of their damn business,” and choking up with emotion. “I don’t need anyone to remind me when he passed away,” he said. He said that Hur’s description wasn’t in the report. “They don’t know what they’re talking about,” he said.
The handwritten notebooks, meanwhile, were found by FBI agents in unlocked drawers in the office and basement den of Biden’s home in Delaware. Biden was aware of the intel in the notebooks, says the report.
“These material were proof of the stand Mr. Biden took in what he regarded as among the most important decisions of his vice presidency,” the report says.
The report includes classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan and personal reflections on Biden’s presidency in notebooks, along with other writings.
There is no recommendation by the Justice Department to prosecute President Biden in connection with the classified documents that were found at his home and office in Delaware.
No criminal charges are justified, according to the report. “We would reach the same conclusion even if Department of Justice policy did not foreclose criminal charges against a sitting president.”
The White House disagrees with a number of inaccurate and inappropriate comments in the report on the classified documents, but they did not say 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 said that he is well meaning and an elderly man, when asked by a reporter about being described as a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory. I know what I’m doing.
When answering a question about the current negotiations with Israel and Hamas, the president of Mexico was mistakenly stated as Biden’s mistake.
Biden has called the presidents of France and Germany “Mitterrand” and “Helmut Kohl” in recent days. François Mitterrand and Kohl were former leaders of France and Germany, respectively.
What you need to know about the Biden classified documents report and the fallout: The elderly man does not need to be president, says the special counsel
The president is locked in a very tight race with Donald Trump in the Republican race and has low approval of his handling of the economy and immigration. The special counsel’s assertion that he’s an “elderly man with a poor memory” is hardly going to help.
Still, Biden sought to dispute the unfavorable parts of the report in a fiery press conference Thursday night, emphasizing his cooperation with the investigation and defending his fitness for office.
The legal arguments surrounding whether charges were appropriate and what materials had been uncovered are covered in the report.
Biden relied on his notebooks in particular while writing his memoir Promise Me, Dad, which was published in 2017 and reflects on the year his older son Beau died of cancer, two years earlier.
In conversations with his ghostwriter for the book, he read from those notebooks — and on at least three occasions shared classified material while doing so.
It’s difficult to prove that Biden intended to break the law if the evidence is not strong.
Biden’s lawyers pointed out in a letter to the special counsel that they didn’t agree with the characterization of their client’s memory.
“The report uses highly prejudicial language to describe a commonplace occurrence among witnesses: a lack of recall of years-old events,” said Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, and Bob Bauer, Biden’s personal counsel.
The lawyers also note that the 5 hours of interviewing with Biden began the day after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, when Biden had numerous meetings with foreign leaders and his national security team.
“How in the hell dare he raise that?” Biden said, “That’s not their business.” And he was emotional. “I don’t need anyone to remind me when he passed away.”
The Republicans quickly seized on the line as a reason that Biden does not need to be president.
Trump’s case for the Jan. 6 mar-a-Lago documents and the high-profile assault on the U.S. Capitol
Trump, meanwhile, is awaiting trial in multiple cases, including for the Mar-a-Lago documents case. And hours before the Hur report dropped on Thursday, the Supreme Court was hearing arguments about whether Trump could be disqualified from the ballot in Colorado for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.