Republicans and Democrats were somewhat unsure what to do Tuesday with former special counsel Robert K. Hur, the man who declined to accuse President Biden of criminally retaining classified documents while also highlighting Biden’s memory problems.
A case in point: A Democratic congressman accused Hur of using his report to “trash and smear” Biden and to help Donald Trump, even as a Republican pilloried him as “part of the Praetorian Guard that guards the swamp out here in Washington, D.C., protecting the elites.”
But on several key points in his testimony Tuesday, Hur did poke holes in the GOP’s attempts to leverage his report against Biden.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) offered characteristically sweeping and oversimplified claims about what Hur’s report had shown.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) questioned former special counsel Robert Hur’s report into President Biden’s handling of classified documents on March 12. (Video: The Washington Post)
At the outset, Jordan claimed that Hur in his report “writes, ‘Mr. Biden willfully retained marked classified documents about Afghanistan and handwritten notes in his notebooks.’”
In fact, Jordan was truncating Hur’s sentence. Hur merely wrote that his investigation had “uncovered evidence” to that effect — not that it was his conclusion.
When Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.) offered the same talking point, Hur sought to correct the record by emphasizing the word she and Jordan had avoided — “evidence.” And he went further, making clear the evidence wasn’t enough.
“But ultimately, we concluded that the evidence was insufficient to warrant —” Hur said as Hageman cut him off.
Live updates from Robert Hur’s testimony
Both Hageman and Jordan theorized that Hur’s report effectively said he would have accused Biden of criminal actions if not for his memory problems.
Jordan summarized it thusly: “But because he’s a forgetful old man who would appear sympathetic to a jury, Mr. Hur chose not to bring charges.”
Hur, again, made clear that wasn’t an accurate summary. He emphasized to Hageman that how Biden would present to a jury was merely “an element” of his decision.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) similarly posited that Hur had stated “that the elements of a federal criminal violation are met.”
“But then you apply this senile cooperator theory, that because Joe Biden cooperated and the elevator didn’t go to the top floor, you don’t think you get a conviction,” Gaetz said.
“I need to disagree with at least one thing that you said,” Hur told Gaetz, “which is that I found that all of the elements were met.”
Hur said he decided he would not be able to prove Biden had the requisite intent.
Both Gaetz and Jordan also pointed to Hur’s report saying that Biden’s ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer, had deleted key audio recordings on which Biden discussed having sensitive and even classified documents. Zwonitzer allegedly deleted them after becoming aware of the special counsel’s investigation.
“That’s the key takeaway in my mind,” Jordan said, citing destroyed evidence.
Gaetz said that Zwonitzer not being charged showed a double standard. He seemed to compare it to Trump allies being indicted for allegedly participating in a plot to delete security camera footage at Mar-a-Lago to hide Trump’s classified documents.
“If it’s like deleting the evidence of crimes doesn’t count, what would meet the standard” for obstruction of justice? Gaetz asked.
In fact, Hur’s report noted that Zwonitzer’s cooperation — which included producing transcripts that contained the key passages from the same recordings — “suggest that his decision to delete the recordings was not aimed at concealing those materials from investigators.”
In his testimony Tuesday, Hur again cited Zwonitzer’s production of the transcripts as a mitigating factor.
To be sure, there were some clashes with Democrats.
Hur stood strong in the face of attacks from Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), who accused him of gratuitously and/or misleadingly citing Biden’s memory lapses; Hur said they were relevant to his decisions as special counsel. (As The Washington Post’s Matt Viser reports, the just-released transcript of Biden’s interview with Hur makes Biden seem somewhat less absent-minded than Hur’s report made him out to be.)
Hur also reinforced that he didn’t “exonerate” Biden. And his report clearly provides fodder for Republicans who have been eager to spotlight Biden’s age, an issue that is a major concern to the American electorate.
But that doesn’t mean Hur’s report says everything Republicans claim it does about Biden. And on Tuesday, he made that pretty clear.
Source link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/12/robert-hur-testimony-biden-age/