Attorney General Merrick Garland is defending his decision to allow special counsel Robert Hur’s final report on President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents to include observations of the president’s declining mental faculties.
At a press conference announcing the Justice Department’s antitrust challenge against Apple, Garland addressed critics who believe he should have intervened and edited the substance of Hur’s report.
“When the president announced my nomination, he said to me directly and then to the American public, that he intended to restore the independence and integrity of the Justice Department,” Garland said. He did not comment directly on the substance of Hur’s descriptions of Joe Biden’s memory difficulties.
“The idea that an attorney general would edit or redact or censor the special counsel’s explanation for why the special counsel reached the decision that the special counsel did – that’s absurd,” Garland added. Garland appointed Hur in January 2023 to investigate Biden’s handling of classified documents after classified materials were found at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C. by Biden’s personal attorney.
In early February, Hur produced his final report on his investigation into Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents at his Delaware residence and other locations. Biden would likely present himself to a jury as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” Hur’s report concludes.
The special counsel did not recommend criminal charges against the sitting president, although he did find evidence Biden willfully retained classified information on foreign policy and national security matters.
Two findings from Hur’s report, Joe Biden’s struggle to remember when he was vice president and the year his son Beau Biden pass away, particularly struck a chord with the president and his supporters. President Biden held an angry press conference responding to Hur’s report and accused the special counsel of bringing up the death of his late son.
Hur testified before the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month and defended the observations made in his final report. In his opening statement, he said it was necessary to note Biden’s memory difficulties because it factored into his assessment not to recommend criminal charges against the president.
Transcripts released upon Hur’s testimony show Joe Biden brought up his son and corroborated the findings presented in Hur’s report on Biden’s memory lapses. The White House pressured Hur to revise his report and remove some of the language he used to describe Biden’s advanced age, Hur confirmed.
Democrats attacked Hur as a partisan, Republican prosecutor throughout his testimony and compared Biden’s handling of classified documents to former president Donald Trump. Special counsel Jack Smith is prosecuting Trump in Florida over his retention of classified documents and alleged refusal to return it to the government.