Special Counsel Robert Hur has declined to charge President Joe Biden for willfully retaining, disclosing and grossly mishandling a number of classified documents as a private citizen -- taking them from his time in the U.S. Senate and after he left the vice presidency in early 2017. He had no declassification authority in either position and shared information with his ghostwriter.
From the executive summary of the report:
We conclude that no criminal charges are warranted in this matter. We would reach the same conclusion even if Department of Justice policy did not foreclose criminal charges against a sitting president.
Our investigation uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen. These materials included (1) marked classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, and (2) notebooks containing Mr. Biden's handwritten entries about issues of national security and foreign policy implicating sensitive intelligence sources and methods. FBI agents recovered these materials from the garage, offices, and basement den in Mr. Biden's Wilmington, Delaware home.
However, for the reasons summarized below, we conclude that the evidence does not establish Mr. Biden's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Prosecution of Mr. Biden is also unwarranted based on our consideration of the aggravating and mitigating factors set forth in the Department of Justice's Principles of Federal Prosecution. For these reasons, we decline prosecution of Mr. Biden.
Citing Biden's age and memory, the report states a jury would not find him guilty.
"We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during out interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory," the report states. "Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — by then a former president well into his eighties — of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness."
"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, including by reporting to the government that the Afghanistan documents were in his Delaware garage, 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," the report continues.
The report, which spans hundreds of pages, shows tattered boxes full of documents in Biden's Wilmington, Delaware garage and in a downtown Washington D.C. office. His son, Hunter Biden, had regular access to the information. The younger Biden does not have a security clearance and has been charged with multiple felonies for tax evasion. The documents include sensitive information about foreign policy and other military operations.
BREAKING: These are some photos of the classified docs President Biden stored in the garage in Delaware, according to Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report. Some of these documents included classified information about Afghanistan, the report says. No criminal charges recommended. pic.twitter.com/IvMQbJglse
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) February 8, 2024
Biden responded to the report during a Democratic event in Virginia Thursday afternoon.
BIDEN: “The special counsel released their findings today about their look into my handling of classified documents. I was pleased to see they reached the conclusion I believed and knew all along they would!” pic.twitter.com/j0AY6o64HN
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) February 8, 2024
This story has been updated with additional information.
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