Maryland’s Hur grilled over Biden report
He denied any political motivation in what he called an explanation
WASHINGTON — Special Counsel Robert Hur, Maryland’s former U.S. attorney, repeatedly denied on Tuesday that he was trying to “trash and smear” President Joe Biden when he described him in an explosive report as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
In a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Hur, a Republican, was placed on the spot not only by Democrats accusing him of making a “gratuitous” remark in the report, but also by Republicans criticizing him for not recommending Biden be criminally charged for retaining classified documents after his vice presidency ended in 2017.
Republican Donald Trump, the former president and Biden’s presumed November election opponent, is accused in a pending Florida indictment of dispatching aides and lawyers to help him hide classified records demanded by investigators.
The hearing was called by the Republican-led committee to examine Hur’s report, in which he concluded that charges were not warranted against Biden.
Ohio’s Jim Jordan, the Republican committee chairman, speculated at the hearing that Biden kept classified documents for “pride and money” because the president was writing a book that could make use of classified material.
Hur was appointed by Trump as Maryland’s top federal prosecutor and took office April 9, 2018. His tenure saw the charging and convictions of former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, former Police Commissioner Darryl De Sousa, and former Maryland
Del. Cheryl Glenn. Hur stepped down in February 2021 after Biden took office.
Tuesday’s hearing developed into a series of campaign-style dust-ups over the mental acuity of Biden, a Democrat who is seeking a second term, and Trump.
“Special Counsel Hur was not named in order to investigate President Biden’s memory. And I don’t understand him to be a memory specialist,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, said in an interview.
Republicans showed clips on hearing-room monitors of gaffes or confusing moments displayed by Biden. Democrats countered with videos of flubs by Trump.
Biden is shown, for example, confusing the Egyptian and Mexican presidents. Trump is shown mixing up former presidential candidate Nikki Haley, a Republican,
and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat.
Hur was the lone witness in the packed hearing room, sitting at a long table facing a phalanx of photographers and House members. He remained composed during hours of testimony, often saying he could not answer political questions that fell outside his report.
Responding to Democratic questioners, Hur denied any political motivation in preparing the report.
“I can assure you and I can tell you that partisan politics had no place whatsoever in my work. It had no place in the investigative steps that I took,” he said.
Hur said in his opening statement that he included the assessment of Biden’s memory because “I knew that for my decision to be credible, I could not simply announce that I recommended no criminal charges and leave it at that. I needed to explain why.”
He said he could not conclude that Biden “willfully” broke the law “without assessing the president’s state of mind.”
But Georgia Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson accused Hur of trying to “trash and smear” Biden while knowing “that would play into the Republicans’ narrative that the president is unfit for office because he’s senile.”
And Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, told Hur: “What you did write was deeply prejudicial. You must have understood the impact of your words. You had to understand that and you did it anyway.”
But Hur said: “What I wrote is what I believe the evidence shows, and what I expect jurors would perceive and believe. I did not sanitize my explanation. Nor did I disparage the president unfairly.”
California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell asked Hur whether he would pledge not to take a position in a second Trump administration if the Republican wins the November election.
Hur declined to answer, saying he was there to address his report.
Hur, a Montgomery County resident, joined the Washington office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in 2021 before being named special counsel one year ago. In 2021, Hur, who is Korean American, led a state work group that developed strategies and recommendations to combat the rise of crimes against Asian Americans.
Hur, who interviewed Biden during his investigation, wrote in his report that the president couldn’t recall in an interview with prosecutors the date when his adult son, Beau, died of cancer.
A transcript released Tuesday showed Hur didn’t ask the president about his son’s death; Biden brought it up himself during a discussion about how he stored documents at a rental home in Virginia after leaving the vice president’s office.
The transcript showed Biden recalled the specific date that Beau died, although he briefly wondered aloud about the year as the conversation toggled between various events.
“What month did Beau die?” Biden mused. “Oh, God, May 30th.”
A White House lawyer interjected by saying, “2015.”
“Was it 2015 he had died?” Biden asked. When someone responded affirmatively, the president added, “It was 2015.”