Former Special Counsel Robert Hur faced bipartisan flak on Tuesday during a House Judiciary Committee hearing about his conclusions regarding President Joe Biden's retention of classified material after he served as Barack Obama's vice president. Republicans wanted to know how Hur could conclude that criminal charges against Biden were not warranted when Special Counsel Jack Smith is prosecuting former President Donald Trump for broadly similar conduct. Democrats complained about Hur's description of Biden as "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory" and "diminished faculties in advancing age," which they portrayed as legally irrelevant and possibly motivated by the hope of a judicial appointment in a second Trump administration.
A 258-page interview transcript that was released ahead of the hearing sheds some light on the latter issue. The transcript, which is based on hours of recorded interviews with Biden that Hur and his staff conducted on October 8 and October 9, largely supports Hur's description of Biden in his February 5 report, which was legally mitigating but politically damaging in the context of the 2024 presidential race, given the concerns that voters have expressed about the 81-year-old president's cognitive health.
