Hur to defend comments on Biden’s memory as ‘necessary, accurate and fair’
Robert Hur is expected to double down on his comments on Joe Biden’s memory that he made in his report on the president’s handling of classified documents when he appears before the House judiciary committee this morning.
According to his opening statement, obtained by Politico, Hur will argue that his assessment of Biden’s memory in the 388-page report released last month was “necessary and accurate and fair” and that his job required him to “consider the president’s memory and overall mental state, and how a jury likely would perceive his memory and mental state in a criminal trial”.
The statement goes on:
I did not sanitize my explanation. Nor did I disparage the president unfairly. I explained to the attorney general my decision and the reasons for it. That’s what I was required to do.
Key events
Jim Jordan, the Republican chair of the House judiciary committee, began the hearing by claiming that Robert Hurt’s report determined that Joe Biden “unlawfully” retained classified information.
Hur’s report found that Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen”.
But the special counsel concluded that criminal charges would not be warranted against Biden in relation to wrongly retaining classified material.
The report said that even if Biden were not president, Hur would not recommend criminal charges.
House judiciary committee hearing begins with special counsel Robert Hur to testify
Special counsel Robert Hur is about to testify in front of the Republican-led House judiciary committee.
The scheduled start of the hearing was disrupted by shouts from members of audience protesting against Israel’s war in Gaza.
The White House is planning to fact-check Robert Hur’s testimony on Capitol Hill in real time, administration officials have said.
White House officials will be releasing rapid responses to claims by both congressional Republicans and the special counsel himself, NBC and CNN reported.
Special counsel Robert Hur has arrived ahead of a hearing of the House judiciary committee on Capitol Hill, where will testify about his investigation into Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents.
Transcript of Biden’s interview with Robert Hur paints nuanced picture
Over five hours of interviews, Joe Biden repeatedly told special counsel Robert Hur 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.
In his report, Hur concluded that Biden should not face criminal charges over his mishandling of documents but also impugned the president’s age and competence. Hur wrote in his report:
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.
But a review of a transcript of the interviews by the Associated Press shows that while Biden fumbled some details in his interview, it also raises questions about Hur’s depiction of the 81-year-old president as having “significant limitations” on his memory.
Robert Hur has surrounded himself with Republican partisans and Donald Trump allies during the lead-up to his appearance before the House judiciary committee today, according to the Independent report.
The paper cited sources who said they were “alarmed” by Hur’s choice of associates ahead of Tuesday’s hearing, including retaining William Burck, “a veteran Washington lawyer with deep ties to the Republican political establishment”, as his personal attorney.
Burck is a former federal prosecutor who then served as President George W Bush’s lawyer and a former deputy at the Bush White House. He also represented three Trump White House officials during the justice department’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
A source told the Independent that both Hur and Burck “have long histories as Republican partisans”, adding that Hur’s legal team “has not been particularly communicative” with the Democratic side of the panel in the run-up to the former special counsel’s testimony.
Another source told the paper that committee members have taken note of Hur’s legal team and “are expecting him to attempt to inflict as much political harm” on Joe Biden as he can. The source added:
Where people like …. Bill Burck come in is to help him weaponise the report he wrote in order to damage the president.
Robert Hur is also expected to defend his investigation into Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents as having been carried out “fairly, thoroughly, and professionally”, according to his opening statement obtained by Politico.
Hur will say that his team conducted a “thorough, independent investigation” and identified that the president had “willfully retained classified materials after the end of his vice presidency, when he was a private citizen”.
We did not, however, identify evidence that rose to the level of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Because the evidence fell short of that standard, I declined to recommend criminal charges against Mr Biden.
The justice department required him to write a report explaining his decision to the US attorney general, Hur is expected to say.
I understood that my explanation about this case had to include rigorous, detailed, and thorough analysis. In other words, I needed to show my work … 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.
Hur to defend comments on Biden’s memory as ‘necessary, accurate and fair’
Robert Hur is expected to double down on his comments on Joe Biden’s memory that he made in his report on the president’s handling of classified documents when he appears before the House judiciary committee this morning.
According to his opening statement, obtained by Politico, Hur will argue that his assessment of Biden’s memory in the 388-page report released last month was “necessary and accurate and fair” and that his job required him to “consider the president’s memory and overall mental state, and how a jury likely would perceive his memory and mental state in a criminal trial”.
The statement goes on:
I did not sanitize my explanation. Nor did I disparage the president unfairly. I explained to the attorney general my decision and the reasons for it. That’s what I was required to do.
Hur to testify as private citizen after leaving justice department
Robert Hur, the former Trump-appointed special counsel who spent the last year investigating Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents, will testify before the House judiciary committee as a private citizen after leaving the justice department.
According to a report by the Independent, Hur arranged his departure from the justice department to be official as of Monday 11 March, meaning that he will appear on Capitol Hill as a private citizen with no constraints on his testimony.
The paper quoted a House judiciary committee source as saying that Hur’s departure from government service a day before his scheduled appearance is a “major red flag for Democrats” and makes it “more problematic”.
Hur finished up his work last week and is no longer with the justice department, according to a department spokesperson.
Special counsel Robert Hur to testify on Biden classified documents probe
Good morning US politics readers. Robert Hur is set to testify this morning in front of the Republican-controlled House judiciary committee weeks after his report into Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents after his vice-presidency.
In his report released in February, Hur, a former US attorney appointed by Donald Trump, recommended that Biden not be charged for possessing classified documents while criticizing the president’s ability to recall events, saying that a potential jury would likely find him to be a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”.
Hur’s report drew immediate backlash from the president’s Democratic allies and from Biden himself, who angrily pushed back on comments about his mental acuity particularly over Hur’s mention that he “did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died”. Biden said of the special counsel at the time:
I don’t need anyone, anyone, to remind me when he passed away. How the hell dare he raise that.
But the transcript of the interview contradicts the president’s characterization, and appears to show Biden indeed struggled to recall the exact year his son’s death occurred. It was also Biden himself who first brought up Beau’s death, not Hur, the transcript showed.
Hur will face questions from both parties when the committee convenes at 10am ET today. Led by Trump ally Jim Jordan, the panel’s Republicans have spearheaded much of the House GOP’s investigations into Biden, including the effort to impeach him.
Meanwhile, Georgia, Mississippi and Washington hold their primary elections today, and Hawaii is holding its Republican caucuses. Democrats abroad and in the Northern Mariana territory vote today as well. Although Biden and Trump are the presumed Democratic and Republican nominees, the election in Georgia will offer a preview of what’s to come in November in a state that Biden won in 2020 and where Trump is facing multiple indictments.
Here’s what else we’re watching today (all times eastern):
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10am. The House judiciary committee will hear testimony from special counsel Robert Hur
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10.30am. The Senate will meet to take up the first of several judicial nominations.
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12pm. Joe Biden will participate in a campaign meeting in Washington with Teamsters members.
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1.30pm. The White House daily press briefing.
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3.45pm. Kamala Harris will depart San Francisco and fly to Denver to speak at a campaign fundraiser.
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4pm Biden will meet with Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, and prime minister, Donald Tusk.
