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Watch Live: Hur Confirms Biden Lied About Classified Docs During Contentious Hearing

Tyler Durden's Photo
by Tyler Durden
Tuesday, Mar 12, 2024 - 04:21 PM

Update (1220ET): Today's testimony by former Special Counsel Robert Hur had more fireworks than we anticipated - with House Democrats like Jerry Nadler (NY) and Eric Swalwell (CA) and others doing their best to distract from Hur's findings that Biden willfully mishandled classified information with montages of Trump misspeaking to prove that the former president is just as cognitively challenged.

Nevertheless, Hur confirmed that Biden lied about not sharing classified information...

Meanwhile, the released transcript of Biden's interview with Hur also confirms that Biden couldn't remember the year his son died, or when he was VP.

Watch Live:

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Former Special Counsel Robert Hur, who led the Biden classified documents probe - and concluded that the president is too cognitively gone to face prosecution - began testimony in front of the House Judiciary Committee today at 10 a.m. in the Rayburn House Office building.

Hur will testify as a private citizen after resigning from the DOJ following the conclusion of his work, according to The Hill, though he will still be bound by DOJ policies and protocols because he's testifying about his work for the agency.

According to his prepared remarks, told the committee that his "report reflects my best effort to explain why I declined to recommend charging President Biden" for his mishandling of classified records."

"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 his 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."

Watch:

Former President Trump, meanwhile, claimed on Tuesday that the DOJ gave Biden a "free pass" on his handling of classified documents.

"Big day in Congress for the Biden Documents Hoax," Trump said on Truth Social. "He had many times more documents, including classified documents, than I, or any other president, had. He had them all over the place, with ZERO supervision or security. He does NOT come under the Presidential Records Act, I DO."

"The DOJ gave Biden, and virtually every other person and President, a free pass. Me, I’m still fighting!!!" Trump added.

Hur, who released his report to the public in February, did not recommend criminal charges against Biden for mishandling and retaining classified documents and stated that he wouldn't bring charges against Biden even if he were not in the Oval Office.

Trump, on the other hand, was charged out of Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation related to his retention of classified materials. Trump pleaded not guilty to all 37 felony charges out of Smith's probe. The charges include willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements. -Fox News

Prior to Hur's testimony, the transcript of his interview with Biden was released to select news outlets and spun hard. But what we do know from the selective reporting is that Biden was confused over several key dates - such as when he was Vice President, and when his son died. Biden, not Hur, brought up his son's death. And Hur expressed deep sympathy for Biden's loss - directly contradicting Biden's claims about Hur.

As Jonathan Turley notes via X:

The transcripts are now released. President Biden claimed no knowledge of any of the classified documents in his home and open in his garage. That is 40 years of memory lapse in the face of open violations of federal law. The transcript also confirmed that it was the President, not Hur, that raised his son's death despite his later anger expressed in his press conference. The President also stated that he did not recall roughly four dozen times.

Biden asks in the transcript when his son died and asks others "was it 2015 he died?" In his press conference, Biden lashed out at Hur, asking “How in the hell dare he raise that? It wasn’t any of their damn business. Ironically, Biden could now claim that he just didn't remember raising that with Hur...precisely the problem that Hur raised in questioning Biden's mental faculties. If he did remember the interview, his public attack seems knowingly false.

And according to the House Judiciary GOP:

𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲, 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐁𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧 “𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝  𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬” 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐧.

President Biden kept classified documents, “critical to  his legacy,” about Afghanistan and the Afghanistan troop surge “in a badly damaged box  surrounded by household detritus” in his Delaware garage. At his Delaware home,  President Biden also kept notebooks containing classified information in unlocked  drawers in his office and basement den. President Biden kept these classified documents  to cite in his memoirs to prove “he was a man of presidential timber.” On at least three  occasions, President Biden “read from classified entries aloud to his ghostwriter nearly  verbatim.”

𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐁𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧 “𝐤𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩” 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞.

Evidence suggested President Biden “was deeply familiar with the measures taken to  safeguard classified information and the need for those measures to prevent harm to  national security.” The Special Counsel noted that President Biden has nearly fifty years  of experience with classified information, and previously publicly acknowledged limits on how a sitting or former president or vice president may properly handle classified  information. Moreover, he said of President Trump allegedly keeping classified  documents: how can “anyone . . . be that irresponsible” and “voiced concern about  ‘[w]hat data was in the there that may compromise sources and methods.’”

𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐥 𝐇𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐁𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧’𝐬  𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝, 𝐭𝐡𝐮𝐬, 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐮𝐧𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝.

The  Special Counsel worried that jurors might be persuaded by President Biden’s presentation  “as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Special Counsel  Hur found that President Biden’s “memory was significantly limited, both during his  recorded interviews with the ghostwriter in 2017, and in his interview with [the Special  Counsel’s] office in 2023.” Finally, Special Counsel Hur pointed to DOJ principles of  prosecution that weigh in favor of not prosecuting because “there is no record of the  Department of Justice prosecuting a former president or vice president for mishandling  classified documents from his own administration. The exception is former President Trump.”

𝐔𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐁𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧, 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐠𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫  𝐬𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧.

However, there are material  distinctions that weigh in President Trump’s favor. The documents in President Trump’s  case came from his time in the White House—when he possessed the ultimate  classification authority. The documents in President Biden’s case span forty years, as  far back as the 1970s, and include material from his time in the Senate and the Vice  Presidency. At no time did President Biden possess ultimate classification authority.  The Justice Department has never prosecuted a former president for maintaining  classified information after office—until Special Counsel Jack Smith indicted President Trump.

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