President Joe Biden’s “poor memory” was a factor in not charging him, Special Counsel Robert Hur told Congress Tuesday.
Hur, who described Biden in his report as “an elderly man with a poor memory,” told the House Judiciary Committee that he could not charge the president with “willfully” retaining classified documents due to lack of evidence.
“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,” Hur said. “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.”
Special Counsel Robert K. Hur watches a video of President Joe Biden during the House Judiciary Committee hearing about his report on Biden’s retention of classified materials as a private citizen, on Tuesday, March 12, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Hur said his responsibility was to weigh whether Biden “willfully retained” or disclosed classified documents, he told Congress:
My task was to determine whether the President retained or disclosed national defense information “willfully”—meaning, knowingly and with the intent to do something the law forbids. I could not make that determination without assessing the President’s state of mind. For that reason, I had 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 evidence and the President himself put his memory squarely at issue. We interviewed the President and asked him about his recorded statement, “I just found all the classified stuff downstairs.” He told us that he didn’t remember saying that to his ghostwriter. He also said he didn’t remember finding any classified material in his home after his vice presidency. And he didn’t remember anything about how classified documents about Afghanistan made their way into his garage.
My assessment in the report about the relevance of the President’s memory was necessary and accurate and fair. Most importantly, what 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,” he said. “I explained to the Attorney General my decision and the reasons for it. That’s what I was required to do.”
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.