Transcripts of President Biden’s interviews with former Special Counsel Robert Hur show the president repeatedly told prosecutors he did not know how classified documents ended up in his home and offices.
More than five hours of Biden’s interviews were turned over to Congress by the Justice Department on Tuesday, hours before Hur is set to testify to the House Judiciary Committee on his investigation into the Democratic president’s handling of classified documents. The interview transcripts show Biden was at times fuzzy about dates as he recalled decades-old stories.
“I have no idea,” Biden said when asked how classified information ended up at his Delaware home and former Penn Biden Center office in Washington, D.C. The president added that had he known the documents were there, he would have returned them to the government.
The president did acknowledge that he intentionally kept his personal diaries — which officials said contained classified information. Biden insisted they were his own property, a claim also asserted by previous presidents and vice presidents, and that he had a right to keep them.
SPECIAL COUNSEL ROBERT HUR TO TESTIFY PUBLICLY ON FINDINGS FROM BIDEN CLASSIFIED RECORDS PROBE
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers the annual State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress in the House chamber at the Capital building on March 7, 2024 in Washington, DC. Biden said he had “no idea” how classified documents ended up at his home and former Penn Biden Center office in Washington, D.C., during an interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur. (Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty Images)
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.
“I never asked anybody,” Biden said. He noted that many 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 don’t know. I can’t remember who.”
Hur, in his report on President Biden’s alleged improper retention of classified records, did not recommend criminal charges against Biden.
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“We conclude that no criminal charges are warranted in this matter,” said the report, which was released in early February. “We would reach the same conclusion even if the Department of Justice policy did not foreclose criminal charges against a sitting president.”
The special counsel infamously described Biden as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
Hur stood by those remarks in his prepared testimony to the Judiciary Committee. He will say his report “reflects my best effort to explain why I declined to recommend charging President Biden.”
This image from Special Council Robert Hur’s investigation released by the Department of Justice on Thursday, February 8, 2024 shows boxes inside Joe Biden’s garage containing classified Afghanistan documents on Dec. 21, 2022. (U.S. Department of Justice)
“My assessment in the report about the relevance of the President’s memory was necessary and accurate and fair,” Hur wrote in a copy of the remarks obtained by Fox News. “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. I explained to the Attorney General my decision and the reasons for it. That’s what I was required to do.”
Confusion over the timing of the death of Biden’s adult son Beau — who died May 30, 2015 — 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.
“How in the hell dare he raise that,” Biden said of Hur. “Frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself it wasn’t any of their damn business.”
However, the transcript shows that Biden recalled the interview incorrectly.
Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report calling out President Biden’s “poor memory” sparked newfound media coverage of the leader’s mental capacity in office. (Reuters/Getty)
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.
“What month did Beau die?” Biden wondered aloud, adding, “Oh God, May 30th.”
A White House lawyer who was present supplied the year, 2015.
“Was it 2015 he died?” Biden said.
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The president went on to tell a story about how his late son had encouraged him to remain involved in public life after the Obama administration ended.
Several portions of the transcript were redacted by the Justice Department, National Security Council and State Department to hide sensitive intelligence and details of foreign affairs matters.
Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman, Brooke Singman and Fox News’ Tyler Olson, as well as the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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