(Ken Silva, Headline USA) As Headline USA reported Wednesday, Special Counsel Robert Hur has declined to prosecute President Joe Biden for willfully holding classified documents at his Delaware home.
However, the details of Hur’s decision are incredible. In a report released Thursday, Hur cited Biden’s failing cognitive abilities as a reason for why he declined to pursue charges.
“Mr. Biden’s memory was significantly limited, both during his recorded interviews with the ghostwriter in 2017, and in his interview with our office in 2023. And his cooperation with our investigation … will likely convince some jurors that he made an innocent mistake, rather than acting willfully-that is, with intent to break the law-as the statute requires,” Hur said.
“We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. 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.”
According to Hur’s report, Biden couldn’t remember basic facts about his career when interviewed by the special counsel.
“He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (‘if it was 2013 – when did I stop being Vice President?’), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (‘in 2009, am I still Vice President?’). He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died,” Hur’s report said.
“And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him. Among other things, he mistakenly said he ‘had a real difference’ of opinion with General Karl Eikenberry, when, in fact, Eikenberry was an ally whom Mr. Eiden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to President Obama.”
Biden did “willfully” retain and disclose highly classified materials when he was a private citizen, Hur admitted.
They didn’t want to bring charges against President Biden for the classified documents case because he’s too old and has a bad memory.
They’re admitting what we all see every day.
Read ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/Ze4Kc4kkva
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) February 8, 2024
Hur’s report says evidence suggests that many of the classified documents recovered by investigators at the Penn Biden Center, in parts of Biden’s Delaware home, and in his Senate papers at the University of Delaware were retained by “mistake.”
Biden said in a statement that he was “pleased” the special counsel had “reached the conclusion I believed all along they would reach — that there would be no charges brought in this case and the matter is now closed.”
The findings will likely blunt his ability to forcefully condemn Donald Trump, Biden’s likely opponent in November’s presidential election, over a criminal indictment charging the former president with illegally hoarding classified records at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
In response to Hur’s report, Biden’s White House attorneys took issue with the characterization of the President’s memory.
“We do not believe that the report’s treatment of President Biden’s memory is accurate or appropriate. The report uses highly prejudicial language to describe a commonplace occurrence among witnesses: a lack of recall of years-old events. Such comments have no place in a Department of Justice report,” said Special Counsel to the President Richard Sauber and Biden’s personal counsel, Bob Bauer.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
