Special counsel Robert Hur testified yesterday that President Joe Biden and/or his White House might have obstructed justice after Hur finished his report on Biden’s illegally taking classified documents to his home
Hur told the House Judiciary Committee that the White House pressured him to change what he concluded about Joe Biden’s poor memory, a main reason Hur offered for not prosecuting Biden.
Hur also testified, pursuant to his report, that Biden illegally gave classified information to ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer, who tried to destroy it after Hur’s investigation was announced.
Republicans on X repeatedly noted that Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump and failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton all mishandled classified documents. But only one — Trump — was prosecuted.
Obstruction Charge Coming?
Hur’s most damning revelation came during questions from GOP Representative Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin.
He asked Hur whether the Biden White House demanded changes in Hur’s report, which said that Biden’s memory was so poor he couldn’t remember when his son Beau died and did not remember when he was vice president.
Hur concluded that he couldn’t prosecute Biden because a jury would see “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.… He is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt.”
Referring to a February 5 letter from the White House to Hur “asking you to change references to the president’s poor memory,” Tiffany asked, “wasn’t there a request by the White House to do that?
“There was a request, yes,” Hur replied.
Tiffany then leveled Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland with his own remarks.
“The gentleman from Maryland earlier said that that was not the case. I think he said, ‘Nor did he seek to redact a single word of Hur’s report.’ Obviously Mr. Hur is telling us differently here.”
Tiffany then asked if the White House counsel sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland that Biden “would like to see changes to the references in regards to the president’s memory.”
“White House Counsel did send such a letter,” Hur replied.
The February 5 letter said, “We do not believe that the report’s treatment of President Biden’s memory is accurate or appropriate.”
The letter to Garland, two days later, said the White House wrote to “Hur to object to certain aspects of his draft report.”
“I’ve Lost Count”
As for Biden’s illegally taking and storing classified documents or passing classified information to the ghostwriter Zwonitzer, Hur’s testimony again convicted Biden.
Under questioning from committee chief Jim Jordan (R) of Ohio, Hur verified from his report that Biden kept classified information in nine places.
“President Biden had this [classified] information everywhere,” Jordan said, rattling off the locations where Biden illegally stored the documents — three in Washington, D.C., two at the University of Delaware, and four at his estate in Delaware, including the garage.
“So what is that? That’s like nine different places,” he continued.
Replied Hur, “I’ve lost count, sir. But that sounds right.”
Hur confirmed the report’s conclusion that “at least three times Mr. Biden read from classified entries aloud to his ghostwriter nearly verbatim,” and further, that, “after learning of the special counsel’s appointment in this matter, Mr. Biden’s ghostwriter deleted audio recordings he had created of his discussions with Mr. Biden during the writing of Mr. Biden’s 2017 memoir. The recordings had significant evidentiary value.”
When Jordan asked what Zwonitzer did with the information, Hur explained that “he slid those files into his recycle bin.”
“He tried to destroy the evidence, didn’t he?” Jordan said.
“Correct,” Hur replied.
“Double Standard”
Republicans took to X to show that two standards of justice have been applied in the mishandling of classified documents: one for Biden and Clinton, and one for Trump, now under fire from special counsel Jack Smith, who has indicted the 45th president for doing the same thing that Biden did.
Jordan laid out the GOP case in three posts.
“Joe Biden kept over 12 documents marked classified at the University of Delaware,” he wrote:
They were related to then-Senator Biden’s service on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Wasn’t prosecuted.
Double standard.
The two other posts were similar, noting that the FBI “seized 17 notebooks and a stack of notecards from Joe Biden’s residence that included handwritten notes containing classified information that touched on sources and methods,” and that “Biden kept 50 classified documents in his Delaware residence garage.”
And some of those — about U.S. operations in Afghanistan — “were found in an unsecured damaged, open box.”
North Dakota GOP Representative Kelly Armstrong explained that only Trump has been prosecuted for mishandling classified information:
Only 3 people have run for President since 2016: Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Donald Trump.
All 3 have been accused of mishandling classified docs.
All 3 have the same underlying criminal elements.
But only one has been prosecuted. That’s what the American people see.
In a particularly embarrassing moment for committee Democrats, Representative Hank Johnson of Georgia accused Hur of trying to help Trump get reelected so Hur could get a federal judgeship.
Johnson falsely said Hur knew how the report would “play with Republicans.”
Replied Hur, “Congressman, I reject the suggestions that you have just made. That is not what happened. Partisan politics played no part whatsoever in my work. My work was independent and fair.”
Johnson asked whether Hur was a member of The Federalist Society and whether he is a Republican. Answers: No and yes.
Continued Johnson, “and you’re doing everything you can do to get President Trump re-elected so that you can get appointed as a federal judge, or perhaps to another position in the Department of Justice. Isn’t that correct?”
“Congressman,” Hur replied, “I have no such aspirations, I can assure you.”
Johnson is the genius who, during testimony about stationing 8,000 Marines and their families on Guam, told a Navy admiral that the island might capsize because it would be overpopulated.
H/T: Fox News, The Federalist
