In his report regarding the criminal investigation into President Joe Biden’s handling of classified information, Special Counsel Robert Hur described Biden as an “elderly man with a poor memory.”
The Special Counsel’s report, which was released Thursday, detailed multiple instances of Biden’s “significantly limited” memory.
“Mr. Biden’s memory was significantly limited, both during his recorded interviews with the ghostwriter in 2017 [with whom he shared classified materials], and in his interview with our office in 2023,” Hur wrote in the executive summary of the report. “We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
The Special Counsel’s report noted that while Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials” during his time as a “private citizen” after serving as vice president for eight years as former President Barack Obama, prosecutors determined “no criminal charges are warranted in this matter.”
Hur warned that it would be “difficult to convince a jury” to convict Biden if criminal charges were recommended because a criminal charge over classified documents is a “serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”
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Hur noted that during the investigation, Biden appeared to have significant memory lapses regarding important events in his life, such as forgetting when he served as vice president or when his son died.
“In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden’s memory was worse,” Hur wrote. “He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (‘if it was 2013 – when did I stop being Vice President?’), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (‘in 2009, am I still Vice President?’).”
Hur added that Biden could not remember “even within several years, when his son Beau died” and that the president’s memory was “hazy” while discussing the Afghanistan debate.
In response to Hur’s assessment of the president, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) released a statement warning that one of the “most disturbing” revelations in the Special Counsel’s report was the reasoning Hur gave for not recommending charges against Biden.
“A man too incapable of being held accountable for mishandling classified information is certainly unfit for the Oval Office,” Johnson said.
