The Stream

The Brew: Special Counsel Hur Testifies to Biden’s Willful Mishandling of Classified Material … and Memory Loss

By Al Perrotta Published on March 13, 2024 •

Al Perrotta

Happy Wednesday!

Today’s Brew comes from Capitol Hill, where Special Counsel Robert Hur yesterday defended his report detailing President Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified information and his description of a feeble old man suffering so much memory loss that no jury would have the heart to convict him.

A Big-Picture Summary

Hur completely contradicted House Judicial Chairman Jerry Nadler’s statement that the Special Counsel’s report exonerated Biden, emphatically saying: “I did not exonerate him, and that word did not appear in my report.” Rather, he said, Biden willfully kept and shared classified information, stashed classified information haphazardly all over his house, and lied both to him and the American people. Hur also insisted in his testimony before Congress that he “had to consider” Biden’s deteriorating mental health when weighing whether to press charges.

Meanwhile, the transcript of Biden’s interview with the Special Counsel’s office confirms he did not remember the year of his son’s death, when he was vice president or when Trump was elected, and that he answered scores of questions with variations of “I have no g***** idea.”

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., approached the matter from a different direction. “In this case, did you reach a conclusion that this man was outright innocent?” Said Hur, “That conclusion is not reflected in my report.”

Hur did conclude that Biden willfully retained and shared classified information for, among other reasons, “pride and money.” The former VP was getting an $8 million book advance, Hur said, and he wanted to present himself as presidential in it.

Hours after the DOJ released Hur’s report last month, the president raced in front of the cameras, bellowing, “I guarantee I did not share classified information!” Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., asked Hur if that was true. Hur replied, “That is inconsistent with the findings.”

However, that wasn’t the only whopper Biden told America that night.

Biden also knew full well he was showing classified material to his ghostwriter in 2017, claiming his team had just found classified documents in his basement. He showed the ghostwriter his notes on classified briefings because he was having trouble reading his own writing, warning “Be careful (if writing about this).”

Documents, Documents Everywhere

But Biden didn’t just have classified documents at home to help score the $8 million windfall. Other classified documents from his days in the Senate and vice presidential terms were scattered like grass seed from D.C. to Boston, and all over his house. Rep. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., ran Hur through the list.

At the Penn Biden Center?

“That’s correct.”

In President Biden’s garage?

“Yes.”

And in his basement den?

“Yes.”

And his main floor office?

“Correct.”

And his third-floor den?

“Correct.”

At the University of Delaware?

“Correct.”

And at the Biden Institute?

“Correct.”

Looks like he didn’t stash any in the glove compartment of his Corvette. So at least there’s that.

Biden Lied to the Special Counsel?

One moment of the testimony is bound to draw the attention of the House Impeachment Inquiry. Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., asked Hur, “Do you have any reason to believe that President Biden lied to you?”

Hurt responded, “I do address in my report one response the president gave to a question we had posed to him that we deemed to be not credible.” (That is slick operator-speak for “he lied.”)

Remember, one of the charges on which Bill Clinton was impeached was lying under oath. For that matter, as The Federalist pointed out Tuesday, the White House attempts to pressure DOJ and Hur to get rid of the critical wording about his memory sounds an awful lot like the “obstruction of justice” they keep trying to pin on President Trump.

The Big Guy’s Memory’s Shot

Hur refused to prosecute Joe Biden because he didn’t feel a jury would convict the president due to his “poor memory.” Biden, the White House, and Democrats were livid that Hur included such a devastating assessment of his diminished capacity. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., even accused Hur Tuesday of suggesting Biden is senile for partisan and personal gain. “You’re doing everything you can do to get President Trump reelected so that you can get appointed as federal judge or perhaps to another position in the Department of Justice. Isn’t that correct?” he said.

“Congressman, I have no such aspirations, I can assure you. And I can tell you that partisan politics had no place whatsoever in my work,” Hur replied. “It had no place in in the investigative steps that I took. It had no place in the decision that I made. And it had no place in a single word of my report.”

Hur repeatedly insisted Biden’s mental status mattered. “The evidence and the president himself put his memory squarely at issue. My assessment was necessary and accurate and fair.”

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Only hours before the hearing, the DOJ released the transcript (while omitting the audio) of Biden’s five-hour interview with the Special Counsel. The transcript confirms several items not only reported by Hur, but challenged by Biden.

Biden did not know what year his son Beau died. He had to be prompted. (And it was Biden, not Hur, who brought Beau up.) He did not know when he was vice president. (He had to be reminded by aides.) He did not know what year Donald Trump was elected. (He had to be corrected.) He twice could not remember what a fax machine was called. He would go on long, scattered, fragmented, disconnected, rants that had nothing to do with the question asked. (National Pulse isolates one such rant that delves into country clubs and burnt male organs.)

As Daily Mail reported, more than 100 times he answered questions — often the most basic ones — with some form of “I have no g****** idea.”

Axios gives you a quick list of quotes.

“When did I announce for president [in 2019]?” he asked.

“If it was 2013 — when did I stop being vice president?”

“In 2009, am I still vice president?” (NOTE: That’s the year he was sworn in as vice president.)

“Trump gets elected in November of 2017?” Biden asked, before someone noted it was November 2016.

At the conclusion of Hur’s morning testimony, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Nathanial Moran ran through some of Hur’s conclusions about Biden’s mental fitness. This includes phrases like Biden’s “significantly limited” memory, “diminished capacities and faulty memory,” and “well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.” Moran said that in his days as a judge he handled many guardianship cases, and the phrases Hur used to describe Biden’s mental condition raised “red flags” in his mind. Moran then pulled up the District of Columbia’s definition of when guardianship over an “incapacitated individual” is warranted.

Ultimately, this is an issue that needs to be addressed. Undoubtedly, Biden has treated our nation’s secrets with as much carelessness, disregard, and self-interest as he has the murder of Laken Riley, and has done so for decades. Most likely, he will get away with it. The evidence is also clear that Biden lied to the faces of the American people in his press conference in the wake of Hur’s report being released. Only November will tell if he pays a political price for his deceit.

However, the matter at hand remains: Robert Hur concluded that Joe Biden is too mentally unfit to face a jury. He did not back off that assertion, even in the face of attacks. The transcript of his interview confirms his assessment. In fact, Hur suggested to Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, that the audio recording would further amplify his assessment. Let the White House claim what it wants about Hur being wrong about Biden’s mental fitness; the fact that the White House hasn’t demanded its release to support its claims indicates how damaging that audio actually is.

Which means we’re in a fix: With what is known of his condition, would Joe Biden — if he were not Joe Biden — be placed under a guardianship rather than keep his place as Commander-in-Chief?

Along The Stream

We also take a deep look at the Interim Report from the House Subcommittee investigating January 6 and the J6 Committee. “Pelosi-Cheney J6 Committee a Rule-Shattering, Evidence-Destroying, Partisan Scam Disinterested in the Truth.”

 

Al Perrotta is managing editor of The Stream, coauthor with John Zmirak of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and coauthor of the counterterrorism memoir Hostile Intent: Protecting Yourself Against Terrorism.

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