The special counsel appointed to investigate President Joe Biden’s handling of classified materials will appear before the House on Tuesday for a hearing that is likely to be contentious and filled with pointed question about his motives and findings that cleared the president of facing charges.
Special Counsel Robert Hur’s lengthy report was released last month, ending a year of investigation that was a political burden for the White House and Biden’s reelection campaign, which exacerbated lingering questions about his age with multiple references about poor memory and ability to recall key dates from his time in public life.
The questions the report brought up about Biden’s memory dominated news cycles for days after its release, overshadowing the fact that he was cleared of facing charges and that Hur, a Republican who was appointed a U.S. attorney by former President Trump,
The Justice Department and Hur’s investigation have been facing political pressure from congressional Republicans for months, none of which has dissipated by the release of the final report. Republicans in the House have subpoenaed the Justice Department for records related to Hur’s investigation as charges of a “weaponized” justice system continue to be made.
What to watch for at the hearing:
DECISION NOT TO CHARGE
The most impactful conclusion from Hur’s report was not to charge the president with a crime for the alleged mishandling of classified materials.
Part of the reasoning in the report was that a jury might see him as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory". It also drew multiple contrasts between Biden’s classified documents case with Trump’s, which remains ongoing.
Hur’s report said Biden cooperated with investigators and turned in the records that were found at his home and a Washington office building, while Trump is accused of obstructing the investigation against him and refusing to turn over materials.
Many legal experts have said the two cases and the cooperation between the defendants are very different, but Republicans in Congress have still pointed to Trump’s document-related charges as evidence of a political witch hunt.
INCLUDING ASSESSMENTS OF BIDEN’S MEMORY
Including the unflattering depictions of the president’s memory has been a sticking point with the White House and congressional Democrats, some of which have charged Hur with incorporating the descriptions to damage the president politically.
Some of the charges made in the report were that he couldn’t remember key dates like when he served as vice president or when his son Beau Biden passed away.
Hur is likely to defend including the characterizations of Biden’s memory along with emphasizing the report’s other findings that determined his actions did not meet the threshold to pursue charges.
The unflattering descriptions prompted a testy press conference on the night the report was released, with Biden insisting to reporters that “my memory is fine.”
FREQUENT ATTENTION ON BIDEN’S AGE
Republicans have seized on the report as more evidence Biden is unfit to lead the country for another four years as he vies for a second term in the upcoming November election, hoping to build on voter concerns about the age of the 81-year-old president and frequent verbal slip-ups that draw attention to the issue.
A New York Times/Siena College poll released earlier this month found 61% of voters who supported Biden in 2020 at least somewhat agree that he is “just too old” to serve effectively, along with 59% of people who plan to support him in November saying that he is too old.
Hur’s hearing is coming less than a week after Biden’s State of the Union address, which Democrats have said showed he is still vigorous and fit to lead the country moving forward. Biden’s speech restarted Democratic critiques of Hur’s report from some lawmakers.
“(Biden) at SOTU showed in real time that he was sharp, agile and strong. You know who really looks like a fool and a total partisan hack? Dr. Robert Hur,” Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
DETAILS OF INTERVIEW
Hur is likely to face many questions seeking to obtain more details and context about his interview with the president as members on both sides of the aisle hope to use the information to advance their view on what impact the report’s findings should have.
White House officials have said they are considering whether to release a transcript of the interview with redactions for classified information. But that comes with a politically difficult choice to make as to whether it would soothe concerns about Biden’s age or ramp them back up again.
Also at issue for government officials is having to redact hundreds of pages of material that is focused on classified information, a process that can take weeks even when expedited.
PRESSURE ON JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
The aftermath of Trump’s presidency has put political pressure on the Justice Department as it juggled investigations into the former president, Biden, and his son Hunter, who had a plea deal collapse in sudden fashion and is still facing federal charges.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has been trying to maintain faith in the Justice Department that it works independently of the White House and does not have political motivations in its various criminal investigations.
The appointment of special counsels is supposed to help alleviate the concerns of political bias when it comes to sensitive investigations, but it has done little to ease the pressure from Congress.
Republicans on the Judiciary Committee have frequently sought to obtain records and interviews from Justice Department officials involved in sensitive cases as they conduct probes about an alleged “weaponization” of the department. They are likely to press Hur on whether he was pressured by DOJ officials not to charge the president or include certain details in his final report.