Robert Hur’s testimony before a congressional committee quickly turned into a partisan slugfest with Democrats and Republicans seizing on the contrasting behaviour of Biden and Donald Trump, who has been indicted for his own mishandling of top-secret documents.
In his nearly 350-page report released in February, Hur said criminal charges against Biden were not warranted and – in a politically explosive section – described him as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”.
Republicans have particularly focused on Hur’s comments about Biden’s memory, hoping to reignite the age issue for the 81-year-old Democrat ahead of an expected rematch against 77-year-old Republican Trump in the November presidential election.
“My task was to determine whether the president retained or disclosed national defence information ‘willfully’ – meaning, knowingly and with the intent to do something the law forbids,” Hur told the House Judiciary Committee. “For that reason, I had to consider the president’s memory and overall mental state.
“My assessment in the report about the relevance of the president’s memory was necessary and accurate and fair,” Hur said. “I did not sanitise my explanation. Nor did I disparage the president unfairly.”
Democratic lawmakers pushed back against Hur, a 51-year-old registered Republican and career prosecutor, accusing him of making “gratuitous” remarks about Biden’s memory and injecting himself into the presidential campaign.
“Despite clearing President Biden from being prosecuted you used your report to trash and smear President Biden,” said Representative Hank Johnson, a Democrat from Georgia.
“You cannot tell me you’re so naive as to think your words would not have created a political firestorm?” said Adam Schiff, from California.
“You were not born yesterday. You understood exactly what you were doing,” Schiff said. “It was a choice. You certainly didn’t have to include that language.”
Hur, who was appointed special counsel by Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, insisted that “partisan politics had no place whatsoever in my work”.
“Politics played no part,” he said.
