Takeaways from Robert Hur’s testimony on Biden’s mishandling of classified documents

Originally Published: 12 MAR 24 12:50 ET By Jeremy Herb and Marshall Cohen, CNN

    (CNN) -- Former special counsel Robert Hur appeared before Congress on Tuesday to explain his investigation into President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents – which led to no charges against the president but plenty of consternation among Democrats when Hur described Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” in his report.

While Hur came ready to defend his investigation, outlining a specific, legal case — or lack thereof – the members of the House Judiciary Committee were fighting a battle over the much more subjective political consequences to Hur’s report just months before the 2024 presidential election.

Republicans attacked Biden as they pressed Hur on his decision not to prosecute the president, while Democrats criticized Hur for his comments about Biden’s memory – while also focusing much of their attention on former President Donald Trump and the differences in the former president’s classified documents case, which led to an indictment last year.

Here are takeaways from Tuesday’s hearing:

2024 campaign overtones on both sides of the Hur hearing

Tuesday’s oversight hearing gave lawmakers in both parties a high-profile opportunity to score political points against both Biden and Trump, the presumptive nominees in the 2024 presidential election.

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan’s opening statement included a full airing of a seven-minute press conference after Hur’s report was released, where Biden faced questions about his memory and mixed up the leaders of Egypt and Mexico.

Rep. Jerry Nadler, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, followed Jordan by playing his own video, a montage cut by his aides of Trump showing the former president misremembering key facts, including a clip of Trump from last year in which he incorrectly said Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary, was the prime minister of Turkey.

“That is a man who is incapable of avoiding criminal liability. A man who is wholly unfit for office and a man who, at the very least, ought to think twice before accusing others of cognitive decline,” Nadler said after the video wrapped.

Trump’s memory, of course, had nothing to do with Tuesday’s hearing. Except it had everything to do with the hearing – because the hearing was as much about the 2024 campaign and the coming clash between Biden and Trump as it was about taking testimony from a special counsel who declined to charge Biden for his mishandling of classified information.

Hur tries to play it straight

In his opening statement, Hur defended his report. which found evidence Biden willfully retained classified materials but that the evidence did not rise to the level of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

And he took on criticism directly over his inclusion of the state of Biden’s memory.

“My assessment in the report about the relevance of the President’s memory was necessary and accurate and fair,” Hur said. “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.”

The last time a special counsel testified about his probe of the sitting president was Robert Mueller in 2019, describing his Trump-Russia findings. Hur is roughly 30 years younger than Mueller, and delivered a more fluent performance – but he adhered to the spirit of Mueller.

Hur followed Mueller’s style of strictly commenting on material contained in the report, which frustrated both parties. Hur dodged GOP attempts to bash Biden’s age, beyond the analysis in his report. He also declined to answer when Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, a Democratic firebrand, asked him to pledge not to seek a role in a potential second Trump administration. (“You don’t want to be associated with that guy again, do you?” Swalwell quipped.)

Hur attacked from both sides

Lawmakers in both parties found plenty of reasons to take issue with Hur’s report.

Several Democrats went after Hur for his comments on Biden’s memory lapses, calling them gratuitous and implying he was trying to help Trump’s reelection bid by wounding the Democratic president.

“And 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 Department of Justice, isn’t that correct?” said Rep. Hank Johnson, a Georgia Democrat.

Hur laughed at the suggestion. “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.”

Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat running for a US Senate seat, then pressed Hur about the “political firestorm” he must have known his report would create.

“You understood that you made a choice,” Schiff said. “That was a political choice. It was the wrong choice.”

“What you are suggesting is that I shape, sanitize, omit portions of my reasoning and explanation to the attorney general for political reasons,” Hur said.

On the Republican side, lawmakers pressed Hur on why he didn’t charge Biden despite the evidence of classified documents in Biden’s possession.

“All I have to do when I’m caught taking home classified materials to say, ‘I’m sorry, Mr. Hur, but I’m getting old. My memories not so great?’” asked Rep. Tom McClintock, a California Republican. “This is the doctrine that you’ve established in our laws now and it’s frightening.”

“Congressman, my intent is certainly not to establish any sort of doctrine,” Hur responded. “I had a particular task, I have a particular set of evidence to consider, and make a judgment with respect to one particular set of evidence and that is what I did.”

Both Judiciary chair and ranking member overstate the special counsel’s conclusions

In their opening statements, both the top Republican and Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee overstated some of Hur’s conclusions from his investigation into Joe Biden.

Jordan, an Ohio Republican, claimed that Hur determined that Biden “broke the law” and “unlawfully” held onto classified materials after the Obama administration ended.

“Joe Biden broke the law but because he’s forgetful old man, who would appear sympathetic to a jury, Mr. Hur chose not to bring charges,” Jordan said.

Nadler, meanwhile, claimed Hur fully exonerated Biden’s conduct. “In short, to borrow a phrase from the last administration, the Hur report represents the complete and total exoneration of President Biden,” Nadler said.

It’s clear from Hur’s sweeping 388-page report that he did not completely exonerate the president, as Nadler claimed Tuesday. But the conclusions weren’t as damning and far-reaching as Jordan asserted.

Most importantly, Hur never said explicitly that Biden committed crimes, which Jordan suggested.

Hur found some evidence that Biden willfully retained classified materials after he left the Obama White House. He also uncovered some examples of Biden sharing classified information with his book author.

However, Hur also said his team found plenty of exculpatory evidence that led him to conclude that Biden’s actions weren’t illegal, and ultimately concluded that criminal charges weren’t warranted.

There were enough facts favorable to Biden that would “create reasonable doubt” for a potential jury, and “innocent explanations for the documents that we cannot refute,” Hur wrote in his report.

CNN’s Devan Cole, Hannah Rabinowitz, Holmes Lybrand and Evan Perez contributed to this report.

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