Biden says he never meant to keep classified documents. Hur stands by report on president's memory
Over five hours of interviews, President Joe Biden repeatedly told a special counsel that he never meant to retain classified information after he left the vice presidency, but he was at times fuzzy about dates and said he was unfamiliar with the paper trail for some of the sensitive documents he handled.
of the Biden interviews was made public Tuesday, just as the special counsel, Robert Hur, went before the House Judiciary Committee to face questions about his investigation of the Democratic president.
Hur, in his report, concluded that Biden should not face criminal charges over his mishandling of documents but also impugned the president바카라 게임 웹사이트s age and competence. The special counsel stood by his assessment of the president바카라 게임 웹사이트s memory as 바카라 게임 웹사이트accurate and fair,바카라 게임 웹사이트 in prepared testimony to be delivered to Congress.
In prepared remarks, Hur said: 바카라 게임 웹사이트What I wrote is what I believe the evidence shows, and what I expect jurors would perceive and believe. I did not sanitize my explanation. Nor did I disparage the President unfairly.바카라 게임 웹사이트
While Biden fumbled some details in his interview, the full transcript could raise questions about Hur바카라 게임 웹사이트s depiction of the 81-year-old president as having 바카라 게임 웹사이트significant limitations바카라 게임 웹사이트 on his memory. It paints a more textured picture of his discussions with prosecutors, filling out some of the gaps left by Hur's accounting of the exchanges.
At the same time, it makes plain that the Republican lawyer never asked Biden about the timing of his son바카라 게임 웹사이트s death, contradicting the president바카라 게임 웹사이트s indignant public objections to that supposed line of questioning.
Both the hearing and the transcript were meant to clear up lingering questions about Hur's report on the discovery of some classified records at Biden's home and former Washington private office. But there was no guarantee they would alter preconceived notions about the president or the Trump appointee who investigated him, particularly in a hard-fought election year.
On Capitol Hill, Hur was set to be the rare witness likely to be vilified all around 바카라 게임 웹사이트 by Republicans angry over his decision not to charge the president, and by Democrats for his unflattering commentary about Biden.
Democrats will try to paint Hur as a political partisan out to help his party win a presidential election. Republicans immediately began digging further into Hur바카라 게임 웹사이트s assessment of the president바카라 게임 웹사이트s age and memory 바카라 게임 웹사이트 a major attack line as they seek to unseat Biden come November.
Chairman Jim Jordan said at the start of the hearing that 바카라 게임 웹사이트it boils down to a few key facts. Joe Biden kept classified information. Joe Biden failed to properly secure classified information and Joe Biden shared classified information with people he wasn바카라 게임 웹사이트t supposed to. Joe Biden broke the law because he바카라 게임 웹사이트s a forgetful old man who would appear sympathetic to a jury. Mr. Hur chose not to bring charges.바카라 게임 웹사이트
Hur바카라 게임 웹사이트s report cited evidence that Biden willfully held on to highly classified information and shared it with a ghostwriter, based on audio of the conversations between the two men in which Biden said he had just come across some classified documents at his home.
Video below: Special Counsel Robert Hur testifies before House committee about his report on Biden's handling of classified documents
In the interviews, Biden said he did not recall the exchange, or that he had actually discovered any documents. He said if he had discussed anything questionable with the ghostwriter, it was in referring to a 20-page sensitive memo he had written to then-President Barack Obama in 2009 arguing against surging troops in Afghanistan that he wanted to ensure didn't make it into publication.
Hur devoted much of his report to explaining why he did not believe the evidence against Biden met the standard for criminal charges, partly based on the hours of interviews with the president.
In his prepared remarks, Hur said he was aware of the need to explain in great detail why he바카라 게임 웹사이트d decided not to charge the president. Such explanations are common but usually kept confidential; and so he didn바카라 게임 웹사이트t hold back, particularly in this case.
바카라 게임 웹사이트The need to show my work was especially strong here,바카라 게임 웹사이트 he said. 바카라 게임 웹사이트The attorney general had appointed me to investigate the actions of the attorney general바카라 게임 웹사이트s boss, the sitting president of the United States. I knew that for my decision to be credible, I could not simply announce that I recommended no criminal charges and leave it at that. I needed to explain why.바카라 게임 웹사이트
Hur cautioned that he would not discuss investigative steps or veer from the contents of the report. He said 바카라 게임 웹사이트the evidence and the President himself put his memory squarely at issue.바카라 게임 웹사이트
In the report, Hur said that it could be difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Biden intended to keep the documents, which is the standard for conviction in a criminal case. In part, he argued, jurors could be swayed that Biden바카라 게임 웹사이트s age made him seem forgetful, and there was the possibility for 바카라 게임 웹사이트innocent explanations바카라 게임 웹사이트 for the mishandling of any records.
바카라 게임 웹사이트Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,바카라 게임 웹사이트 Hur wrote in his report.
In his interviews, Biden repeatedly told prosecutors that he did not know how classified documents ended up at his home and former Penn Biden Center office in Washington.
바카라 게임 웹사이트I have no idea,바카라 게임 웹사이트 he said.
He also insisted that had he known they were there, he would have returned them to the government.
The president did acknowledge that he intentionally kept his personal diaries 바카라 게임 웹사이트 which officials said contained classified information. Biden insisted were his own property, a claim also asserted by previous presidents and vice presidents, and that he had a right to keep them.
Video below: Rep. Jim Jordan says, 'Biden felt he was entitled,' during hearing with special counsel
He also acknowledged that he was 바카라 게임 웹사이트never that organized,바카라 게임 웹사이트 as prosecutors pressed him on why some of the documents were located in different places.
Hur, in his report, detailed how his findings about Biden were far different from those of special counsel Jack Smith about Republican front-runner Donald Trump, who has been charged with willfully retaining classified documents.
Trump was hyping Tuesday's 바카라 게임 웹사이트Big day in Congress for the Biden Documents Hoax,바카라 게임 웹사이트 while mischaracterizing his conduct. 바카라 게임 웹사이트The DOJ gave Biden, and virtually every other person and President, a free pass," he said. "Me, I바카라 게임 웹사이트m still fighting!!!"
FBI agents searched Trump바카라 게임 웹사이트s Florida estate in 2022 and removed boxes of documents marked as classified after he refused multiple requests from the National Archives to return them.
Biden, by his own admission, has retained such a sprawling assortment of photos, documents and artifacts from his more than 50 years in public life that he can바카라 게임 웹사이트t keep track of everything.
When asked if first lady Jill Biden kept her things with his, he said, "She wants nothing to do with my filing system.바카라 게임 웹사이트 He added, to laughs from the lawyers, 바카라 게임 웹사이트not even kidding.바카라 게임 웹사이트
The transcript also offered a rare window into the mind of a sitting president, revealing his his humor and his obsessions 바카라 게임 웹사이트 including his beloved Corvette and his keen interest in construction work at his home in Wilmington 바카라 게임 웹사이트 as well as the rigors of the presidency and international crises.
Biden first sat down with Hur during a time of crisis, one day after the devastating Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
He entered the first day of the interview having just gotten off the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, part of a series of calls meant to prevent the attack from spiraling into a wider regional confrontation. At multiple points, when Hur suggested a pause, Biden encouraged prosecutors to keep going, saying, 바카라 게임 웹사이트I'll go all night if we get this done.바카라 게임 웹사이트
Biden said that he left it to his staff to safeguard classified information that was presented to him, often leaving papers on his desk in heaps for aides to sort through and secure.
바카라 게임 웹사이트I never asked anybody,바카라 게임 웹사이트 Biden said. He noted that much of his staff had worked with him for years, to the point where they didn't need direction from him. "It just - it just got done. I don바카라 게임 웹사이트t know. I can바카라 게임 웹사이트t remember who.바카라 게임 웹사이트
Confusion over the timing of the death of Biden's adult son Beau 바카라 게임 웹사이트 who died May 30, 2015 바카라 게임 웹사이트 was highlighted by Hur in his report as an example of the president's memory lapses. But the transcript shows that Hur never asked Biden about his son specifically, as a visibly angry Biden had suggested in comments to reporters the day the report was released.
바카라 게임 웹사이트How in the hell dare he raise that,바카라 게임 웹사이트 Biden said of Hur. "Frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself it wasn바카라 게임 웹사이트t any of their damn business.바카라 게임 웹사이트
But the transcript suggests that the exchange was less revealing about Biden's memory than Hur let on, and that Biden's recollection of it during his emotional White House remarks was incorrect.
Hur asked Biden about where he kept the things that he was "actively working on" while he was living in a rental home in Virginia immediately after leaving the vice presidency in January 2017. And in that context, it was Biden himself who brought up Beau's illness and death as he talked about a book he'd published later in 2017 about that painful time.
바카라 게임 웹사이트What month did Beau die?바카라 게임 웹사이트 Biden mused, adding, 바카라 게임 웹사이트Oh God, May 30th.바카라 게임 웹사이트
A White House lawyer then chimed in with the year, 2015.
바카라 게임 웹사이트Was it 2015 he died?바카라 게임 웹사이트 Biden asked again.
Biden went on to recount in detail the story contained in his book, 바카라 게임 웹사이트Promise Me, Dad,바카라 게임 웹사이트 of how his late son had encouraged him to remain engaged in public life after the Obama administration ended.
The Department of Justice redacted information about other people involved in the case, and the National Security Council and the State Department blacked out some details relating to sensitive intelligence and foreign affairs matters. Before the redactions, the transcript had been classified as top secret and barred from dissemination to foreign nationals.