Washington — Former special counsel Robert Hur, who led the investigation into President Biden’s handling of classified documents, is testifying Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee about his probe and subsequent report that ultimately vindicated the president but included some highly critical conclusions.
Last month, Hur issued his report, which found that no criminal charges were warranted in the documents probe. But he noted the inquiry uncovered evidence “that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency,” although the evidence did not establish the facts beyond all reasonable doubt. And the report included damaging assertions about the 81-year-old president’s memory that the White House has vehemently refuted.
But the transcript of Hur’s interview with Mr. Biden last October, reviewed by CBS News, provides a fuller picture of the five-hour conversation between the two and context around some of the statements that appeared in the report. It reflects a professional, polite and occasionally humorous mood in the room. While the president did stumble over some dates and facts, he recalled many others clearly.
Hur, whose testimony marks the first time he’s addressed the public since the report’s release, is expected to be grilled by both sides of the aisle on Tuesday. The former U.S. attorney and top Justice Department official under the Trump administration was appointed special counsel in the case by Attorney General Merrick Garland. His employment with the Justice Department has ended since the report has been filed.
House Republicans, who lead the committee, are expected to highlight what they claim is a double standard at the Justice Department after former President Donald Trump was charged for allegedly mishandling classified documents. They are also expected to focus on Mr. Biden’s mental acuity.
“Special Counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents made two things clear: there’s a double standard of justice in this country and Joe Biden isn’t fit for office,” Rep. Jim Jordan, the Ohio Republican who leads the committee, said in a statement last month while seeking Justice Department records related to the investigation.
Hur is set to defend the investigation and report on Tuesday, according to prepared remarks obtained by CBS News. The former special counsel will highlight the probe’s finding that Mr. Biden “willfully retained” classified materials, while noting that the investigation did not find evidence that rose to the level of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Because it fell short of that standard necessary to secure a conviction at trial, Hur will explain that he declined to recommend criminal charges.
The former special counsel is set to outline how he needed to explain in the report why he did not bring charges against Mr. Biden, including characterizations of the president’s memory.
“I understood that my explanation about this case had to include rigorous, detailed, and thorough analysis,” Hur says in the prepared remarks. “In other words, I needed to show my work. Just as I would expect any prosecutor to show his or her work in explaining the decision to prosecute or not.”
The Hur Report
In a 345-page report, Hur detailed Mr. Biden’s handling of classified documents that should have been sent to the National Archives but remained in his possession following his time as vice president. The report outlined how classified documents related to military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, along with notebooks with handwritten sensitive intelligence information were found in various locations, including Mr. Biden’s homes and offices.
Hur said Mr. Biden’s conduct posed “serious risks to national security, given the vulnerability of extraordinarily sensitive information to loss or compromise to America’s adversaries.” But he also noted that “addressing those risks when pursuing criminal charges, the only means available to this office, is not the proper remedy here.”
The special counsel concluded that the evidence “does not establish Mr. Biden’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” suggesting that the documents may have been brought to the different locations by mistake.
The yearlong probe included more than 170 interviews of nearly 150 witnesses, including the president himself.
The focus on Biden’s memory
Hur’s report also featured a number of observations about Mr. Biden’s memory that dominated headlines and became fodder for GOP opposition in the weeks that followed, as concern about the president’s mental acuity and age surfaced during his reelection campaign.
The report alleged that the president’s memory “appeared to have significant limitations,” leading the special counsel’s team to believe a jury might see Mr. Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” The report also claimed that Mr. Biden could not recall the year his son, Beau Biden, died and when he served as vice president, among other incidents.
Mr. Biden said in February about the report that he was “especially pleased to see the senior special counsel make clear there’s stark differences between this case and Donald Trump.” But Mr. Biden later said that “there’s even a reference that I don’t remember when my son died. How in the hell dare he raise that? Frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself it wasn’t any of their damn business.”
The transcript of Mr. Biden’s interview shows the president was unable to identify the precise year — but that he correctly named the month and date. “What month did Beau die? Oh God — May 30th,” Mr. Biden asks the room.
The White House counsel’s office asked the special counsel to revise some of the language in the report, while Biden allies called the descriptions “inflammatory.” Bob Bauer, personal counsel to the president, told “Face the Nation” after the report’s release that it “went off the rails,” calling the report a “shoddy work product” and claiming that outside of the legal analysis, there were misstatements of fact and commentary that were “totally inappropriate.”
House Republicans on the committee are expected to highlight the memory-related elements of the report at the hearing on Tuesday, as Mr. Biden’s opponents continue to seize on the Hur report’s characterization of the president’s mental acuity.
Mr. Biden came under intense criticism after the report’s release, as questions about his age as he seeks four more years in office abounded. But a spirited State of the Union address last week seemed to temper some concerns for now about his ability to do the job.
At Tuesday’s hearing, House Democrats will likely lean into criticism of the special counsel’s characterization of the president’s memory, while contrasting Mr. Biden’s handling of classified documents with how Trump allegedly handled documents.
Months before the probe was announced into the president’s handling of the documents, the Justice Department began investigating the handling of classified documents recovered from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in 2022. Trump has been charged with 40 counts in the Southern District of Florida related to that investigation.