Biden will not face charges over classified papers, says ‘memory is fine’

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) - An “elderly” President Joe Biden will not face charges for knowingly taking classified documents when he left the vice presidency in 2017, a prosecutor said on Thursday, drawing a swift rebuke from the president as he seeks reelection.

Special Counsel Robert Hur said in a report that he opted against bringing criminal charges following a 15-month investigation because Biden cooperated and would be difficult to convict, describing him as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

Biden, in an angry rebuttal, said his “memory was fine.” Brimming with emotion during remarks at the White House, he lashed out at the attorney’s suggestion that he had forgotten when his son, Beau, had died and said the accusation that he had willfully kept the classified material was “just plain wrong.”

Hur’s conclusion ensures that Biden, unlike his expected 2024 presidential rival Donald Trump, will not risk prison time for mishandling sensitive government documents.

But it will cause further embarrassment for Biden, 81, as the oldest person ever to serve as U.S. president tries to convince voters that he should serve another four-year term.

“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,” wrote Hur, who served as the top federal prosecutor in Maryland during the Trump administration and was tapped to lead the Biden probe by Attorney General Merrick Garland in January 2023.

Biden noted that the special counsel drew a distinction between him and Trump, 77: Biden returned the documents while Trump allegedly declined to do so.