(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Special Counsel Robert Hur admitted Tuesday at a much-anticipated congressional hearing that President Joe Biden lied when he told reporters last month that he did not share classified documents with his ghost writer.
Hur made this admission in response to questions from Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla, who referenced a Feb. 8 press conference Biden held at the White House. There, Biden told reporters, “I did not share classified information. I did not share it. I guarantee I did not.”
Hur told Gaetz Biden’s statement is “inconsistent with the findings based on the evidence in my report.”
“‘It’s a lie,’ is what regular people would say, right?” Gaetz responded, which caused Hur to smile in the affirmative.
Gaetz then asked about Biden’s assertion that “all the stuff in my home was in filing cabinets that were locked or were able to be locked.”
Hur also confirmed that statement was false. Biden kept some of the classified documents in a cardboard box in his garage.
BREAKING: Special Counsel Robert Hur ADMITS Joe Biden LIED when Biden said he did not share classified information
GAETZ: “Joe Biden said, ‘I guarantee I did not share classified information.’ That's not true, is it?”
HUR: "That is inconsistent with the findings." pic.twitter.com/NyKPjHsozE
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) March 12, 2024
Tuesday’s hearing came as both Biden and Trump were on the cusp of claiming their party’s nominations, and the party lines calcified almost immediately over which leader meant to hang on to classified documents, or rather, who “willfully” retained them — and who didn’t.
Republicans argued Biden was being given a pass by his own Justice Department and that Trump had been unfairly victimized by prosecutors. Democrats, for their part, stressed Biden’s cooperation in the investigation and strongly contrasted that with the separate criminal case against Trump, who refused to return classified documents requested by the National Archives that he had at his Florida estate.
Hur’s 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.
According to the transcript, 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.
Perhaps the most notable finding from Hur’s report is that he chose not to prosecute the President due to his failing cognitive abilities.
“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 in his report.
“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.”
Tuesday’s hearing was still ongoing as of the publication of this article.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
