In one especially combative exchange before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) accused former special counsel Robert Hur of purposely damaging President Joe Biden’s credibility by using “prejudicial” language in his report.
“You were not born yesterday,” Schiff said. “You understood exactly what you were doing. You cannot tell me you’re so naive to think your words would not have created a political firestorm.”
Hur said he knew the DOJ “regulations,” which are supposed to keep special counsel reports confidential. But Schiff countered by telling Hur he “must have understood” the impact his report would have, which was released publicly last month.
ADVERTISEMENT
Hur, who resigned as special counsel on Monday and testified on Tuesday as a private citizen, not a Justice Department employee, knew that his “own personal, prejudicial, subjective opinion of the president... would be amplified by his political opponent,” Schiff insisted. “You had to understand that. And you did it anyway.”
Hur’s scathing remarks about Biden’s “poor memory” were at the center of Tuesday’s hearing, which started off with the special prosecutor firmly defending his report.
“I understood that my explanation about this case had to include rigorous, detailed, and thorough analysis. In other words, I needed to show my work,” Hur told the panel.
“I knew that for my decision to be credible, I could not simply announce that I recommended no criminal charges and leave it at that. I needed to explain why.”
Last month, Hur announced that he would not be filing criminal charges after investigating Biden’s handling of classified documents after leaving the vice presidency in 2017. In his report, Hur said a jury would likely deem Biden “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” It specifically noted that he had trouble with dates, including when his son Beau died and when his vice presidential term began and ended.
Republicans have seized on Hur’s assessment of Biden’s memory, insisting it proves the 81-year-old commander-in-chief is not fit for office.
“The evidence and the President himself put his memory squarely at issue,” Hur told the committee on Tuesday.
“We interviewed the President and asked him about his recorded statement, ‘I just found all the classified stuff downstairs.’ He told us that he didn’t remember saying that to his ghostwriter. He also said he didn’t remember finding any classified material in his home after his vice presidency. And he didn’t remember anything about how classified documents about Afghanistan made their way into his garage.”
“My assessment in the report about the relevance of the President’s memory was necessary and accurate and fair. Most importantly, what I wrote is what I believe the evidence shows, and what I expect jurors would perceive and believe,” Hur insisted. “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.”
Hur told the committee that Attorney General Merrick Garland did not interfere with the investigation, drawing a response from Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO), who said this was a “very different approach” from the way the Department of Justice “unfortunately, tragically, functioned” under Trump.
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) also hammered Hur—who told lawmakers during the hearing that he is a registered Republican—for echoing the GOP “narrative” that Biden is “senile.”
“You’re doing everything you can do to get President Trump reelected so that you can get appointed as a federal judge or perhaps to another position in the Justice Department,” Johnson asked Hur. “Isn’t that correct?”
Hur answered by saying he has “no such aspirations,” and insisting that “partisan politics had no place whatsoever in my work.”
On the other side of the aisle, Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI) began his questioning by reading the dictionary definition of the word “senile.” Did Hur’s report deem Biden specifically as such, he asked. To this, Hur said no, but also told Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) that his report “did not exonerate him” from all wrongdoing simply because his memory may have been spotty.
Any mishandling of classified documents by Biden occurred under a completely different set of circumstances than those involving Trump, who is under indictment for keeping U.S. secrets, unsecured, at his private club, Democrats emphasized. To that end, Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) asked Hur to read certain passages from his report that illuminated this point.
The allegations against Trump contained “serious aggravating facts,” while those against Biden did not, Hur read aloud.
“Most notably after being given multiple chances to return classified documents and avoid prosecution, Mr. Trump allegedly did the opposite,” Hur continued, saying that Trump further obstructed justice “by enlisting others to destroy evidence and then to lie about it.”
“You may stop there,” Dean said.
