Closing summary
Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
Robert Hur, the justice department special counsel assigned to report on Joe Biden’s possession of classified documents, told Congress he was just doing his job when he shook up the US election campaign by criticizing the president’s apparent inability to recall certain events. In his opening statement, Hur defended his descriptions of Biden’s memory issues and the relevance of them to his investigation and in his report as “necessary, accurate and fair”.
Appearing before the House judiciary committee, Hur said his investigation into Biden “did not exonerate” the president despite declining to charge him.
Hur declined to rule out accepting a role in a potential second Trump administration. Hur was appointed as a US attorney by Donald Trump in 2017.
A transcript of Hur’s interview with Biden shows the president repeatedly said he never meant to retain classified information after he left the vice-presidency, but he was at times fuzzy about dates and said he was unfamiliar with the paper trail for some of the sensitive documents he handled.
Ken Buck, the hard-right Republican congressman of Colorado, announced he will leave Congress at the end of next week, putting the GOP’s wafer-thin majority in the House in further jeopardy.
The Pentagon will send a new military aid package for Ukraine worth $300m, the White House announced, the first such move in months as fresh funds for weapons have stalled in the House because of Republican opposition.
Updated
The White House’s announcement that the US will send a new military aid package for Ukraine worth $300m marks the first such move in months as fresh funds for weapons have stalled in the House because of Republican opposition.
It comes as Ukraine is running dangerously low on munitions, and after months of statements from US officials that the it wouldn’t be able to resume weapons deliveries until Congress provided the additional replenishment funds.
The aid announcement comes as Polish leaders are in Washington to press the US to break its impasse over replenishing funds for Ukraine at a critical moment in the war. The Polish president, Andrzej Duda, met on Tuesday with Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate and was to meet with Joe Biden later in the day.
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Donald Trump’s second White House chief of staff tried to stop him from praising Adolf Hitler in part by trying to convince the then president that Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist dictator, was “a great guy in comparison”.
“He said, ‘Well, but Hitler did some good things,’” the retired marine general John Kelly told Jim Sciutto of CNN in an interview for a new book.
I said, ‘Well, what?’ And he said, ‘Well, [Hitler] rebuilt the economy.’ But what did he do with that rebuilt economy? He turned it against his own people and against the world. And I said, ‘Sir, you can never say anything good about the guy. Nothing. I mean, Mussolini was a great guy in comparison.’
Kelly, a retired US Marine Corps general, was homeland security secretary in the Trump administration before becoming Trump’s second chief of staff. Resigning at the end of 2018, he eventually became a public opponent of his former boss.
Kelly told Sciutto it was “pretty hard to believe” Trump “missed the Holocaust” in his assessment of Hitler, “and pretty hard to understand how he missed the 400,000 American GIs that were killed in the European theatre” of the second world war. But I think it’s more … the tough guy thing.”
Trump’s liking for authoritarian leaders, in particular Vladimir Putin of Russia, is well known. His remarks to Kelly about Hitler – like his former practice of keeping a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bed – have been reported before.
Updated
The Biden campaign is feeling good about Robert Hur’s testimony before the House judiciary committee today, a campaign official has told CNN.
Hearing concludes
After nearly five hours, the House judiciary committee has adjourned its meeting and former special counsel Robert Hur has been released.
Reaction is coming in to the announcement that Colorado Republican representative Ken Buck is leaving Congress before the end of the month.
One GOP-er called it “alarming”.
GOP Rep. Pat Fallon reacts to Ken Buck leaving Congress next week: “Very surprising. Very disturbing. Very alarming. Very concerning.”
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) March 12, 2024
Meanwhile, a Democratic operative texts this: pic.twitter.com/1oA1oRfrrT
Buck announced last November that he wouldn’t stand for re-election but gave no indication then that he would leave before the end of his term. He cited the dysfunction of Congress in general but also slammed the Republican party as it “continues to rely on this lie that the 2020 election was stolen” by Joe Biden from Donald Trump.
Buck is currently questioning Robert Hur in the judiciary committee hearing.
Rep. Ken Buck “I think this place is dysfunctional...Instead of operating in a professional manner, this place has devolved into this bickering and nonsense and not really doing the job for the American people.” pic.twitter.com/VWoHGF5PkR
— Republican Voters Against Trump (@AccountableGOP) March 12, 2024
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'I stand by every word in the document' - Hur
The House judiciary committee hearing has resumed in the questioning of now-former special counsel Robert Hur, who investigated Joe Biden’s having kept hold of classified documents after he left office as the US vice-president.
Hur concluded that the US president should not be punished, which enraged Republicans, but justified that decision by saying, essentially, that a jury would find Biden too forgetful, because of his age, to be able to conclude that he committed a crime.
“I stand by every word in the document,” Hur said in testimony at the hearing.
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National security adviser Jake Sullivan said that the fresh consignment of $300m of weapons that the US is dispatching to Ukraine won’t last long.
The weaponry including artillery ammunition will “maybe only last for a couple of weeks”, Sullivan said during a media briefing at the White House.
Meanwhile, the outgoing Senate minority leader, Republican Mitch McConnell, has just urged the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, to hold a vote in the lower chamber on the stalled bill that supplies new aid to US allies Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, Reuters reports.
The US Senate gave final approval to a $95bn wartime aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other American allies, including Taiwan, last month and sent the bill to the Republican-controlled House, where it screeched to a halt amid rightwing opposition.
Sullivan has left the west wing briefing room now and White House the press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, is answering questions that focus more on US domestic topics.
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The Pentagon will rush about $300m in weapons to Ukraine after finding some cost savings in its contracts, the Associated Press reports.
The relatively small input will happen even though the US military remains deeply overdrawn and needs at least $10bn to replenish all the weapons it has pulled from its stocks to help Kyiv in its desperate fight against Russia, the White House announced a little earlier.
It’s the Pentagon’s first announced security package for Ukraine since December, when it acknowledged it was out of replenishment funds. It wasn’t until recent days that officials publicly acknowledged they weren’t just out of replenishment funds, but overdrawn.
The announcement comes as Ukraine is running dangerously low on munitions and efforts to get fresh funds for weapons have stalled in the House because of Republican opposition. US officials have insisted for months that the United States wouldn’t be able to resume weapons deliveries until Congress provided additional replenishment funds, which are part of a large supplemental package stalled in Congress.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan, in announcing the $300m in additional aid:
When Russian troops advance and its guns fire, Ukraine does not have enough ammunition to fire back.
The aid announcement comes as Polish leaders are in Washington to press the US to break its impasse over replenishing funds for Ukraine at a critical moment in the war. Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, met on Tuesday with Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate and was to meet with Joe Biden later in the day.
The US House speaker, Mike Johnson, has so far refused to bring the $95bn package, which includes aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, to the floor.
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Ken Buck resigns from Congress at end of next week
Republican congressman Ken Buck of Colorado is leaving Congress short of his elected term, he announced within the last half hour.
Buck is a hard-right representative. He had already announced that he would not seek re-election but now he’s leaving much sooner, putting the GOP’s wafer-thin majority in the House in further jeopardy.
Here’s the congressman’s post on X/Twitter:
Statement from Congressman Ken Buck on his departure from Congress. pic.twitter.com/orjSzenZnv
— Rep. Ken Buck (@RepKenBuck) March 12, 2024
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Interim summary
The congressional hearing for former special counsel Robert Hur to be questioned about his report into Joe Biden’s retention of classified documents after leaving the vice-presidency has taken a recess for lunch. There are some unrelated votes to be taken in the House and the hearing will resume after those this afternoon but without an exact time given.
Here’s where things stand:
National security adviser Jake Sullivan is now briefing the media in the west wing, and will be followed by White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. We’ll bring you highlights.
Robert Hur declined to engage in Republicans’ questions at the hearing in front of the House judiciary committee about whether Joe Biden is “senile”. Asked whether he found that Biden was senile, after interviewing the US president at length about how he hung on to classified documents after his vice-presidency, Hur said: “I did not. That conclusion does not appear in my report.”
Hur said he “did not exonerate” Biden in his report. Hur interrupted Pramila Jayapal, the Democrat congresswoman from Washington, when she said Hur’s report amounted to a “complete exoneration” of the president. Hur shot back: “I did not exonerate him. That word does not appear in my report.”
Hur declined to rule out accepting a role in a potential second Trump administration. Hur was appointed as a US attorney by Donald Trump in 2017. Trump is running for re-election to a second term as a Republican president.
In his opening statement, Hur defended his descriptions of Joe Biden’s memory issues and the relevance of them to his investigation and in his report as “necessary, accurate and fair”.
Hur is testifying before the House judiciary committee as a private citizen after leaving the justice department. According to a report by the Independent, Hur arranged his departure from the justice department to be official as of Monday, 11 March.
Jerry Nadler, the Democrat House judiciary committee ranking member, began his opening statement at the hearing by saying that House Republicans are “desperate to convince America that white conservative men are on the losing end of a two-tiered justice system, a theory … that has no basis in reality”. Nadler opined that Biden “probably committed a verbal slip or two” in his interviews with Hur.
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Former special counsel Robert Hur said attorney general Merrick Garland did not interfere with his investigation into Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents.
Hur said:
Attorney general Garland did not interfere with my efforts and I was able to conduct a fair thorough and independent investigation.
Hur says he did not conclude that Biden was 'senile'
Former special counsel Robert Hur declined to engage in Republicans’ questions about whether Joe Biden is “senile”.
Wisconsin congressman Scott Fitzgerald said:
Webster’s Dictionary defines ‘senile’ as exhibiting a decline of cognitive ability, such as memory, associated with old age. Mr Hur, based on your report, did you find that the president was senile?
Hur replied:
I did not. That conclusion does not appear in my report.
Hur went on to say that his report addressed Biden’s “memory gaps” in the context of determining how a jury would perceive and consider Biden’s intent to commit a crime.
Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI): “Webster's Dictionary defines senile as ‘exhibiting a decline of cognitive ability, such as memory, associated with old age’ ... Did you find the president was senile?”
— The Recount (@therecount) March 12, 2024
Special counsel Hur: “I did not—that conclusion does not appear in my report.” pic.twitter.com/PihaB8ovq6
Earlier, Republican congressman Matt Gaetz accused Hur of being lenient on Biden because of “senile cooperator theory”.
Hur says 'I did not exonerate' Biden
Former special counsel Robert Hur has said he “did not exonerate” Joe Biden in his report on the president’s handling of classified documents.
Hur interrupted Pramila Jayapal, the Democrat congresswoman from Washington, when she said Hur’s report amounted to a “complete exoneration” of the president. Hur shot back:
I did not exonerate him. That word does not appear in my report.
"I did NOT exonerate [Biden]." - former Special Counsel Robert Hur. pic.twitter.com/3C51cgrDTU
— House Republicans (@HouseGOP) March 12, 2024
Updated
The tone of the hearing so far demonstrates how Robert Hur’s findings have angered both Democrats and Republicans – Republicans are furious that Hur did not charge Biden, while Democrats believe Hur used gratuitous language to hurt the president politically.
Here’s NBC News’ Sahil Kapur:
Robert Hur is getting hit by both parties at this hearing. Republicans are demanding to know why he didn’t prosecute Biden, saying his rationale doesn't satisfy them. Democrats say he threw in needless attacks and anti-Biden editorializing in his report to help Trump politically.
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) March 12, 2024
I didn't fully appreciate that the dynamic of this hearing is that everybody is mad at Hur. Dems are mad at him for his obvious hit job on Biden, and Rs are mad at him because his hit job didn't go far enough and result in a prosecution.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 12, 2024
Hur refuses to rule out role in potential Trump administration
Robert Hur declined to rule out accepting a role in a potential Trump administration. Hur was appointed as a US attorney by Donald Trump in 2017.
Asked by Democrat congressman Eric Swalwell if he would pledge not to accept an appointment from Trump in a possible second term, Hur said:
I’m not here to speak about what may or may not happen in the future.
Implying Hur’s ability to be perceived as “credible” depends on it, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) attempts to get special counsel Robert Hur to commit he wouldn't serve in a potential Trump administration:
— The Recount (@therecount) March 12, 2024
Hur: “I’m not here to testify about anything that will happen in the future.” pic.twitter.com/Dx08D88116
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Adam Schiff, the Democratic congressman from California, upbraided former special counsel Robert Hur for issuing a “deeply prejudicial” report that hurt Joe Biden by questioning his cognitive capacity.
“You were not born yesterday, you understood exactly what you were doing,” Schiff said.
You cannot tell me you’re so naive as to think your words would not have created a political firestorm. You understood that, didn’t you, when you wrote those words?
Hur denied this, saying that “politics played no part whatsoever” in his report.
Updated
Here’s a clip of the former special counsel, Robert Hur, as he delivered his opening statement and defended comments he made about Joe Biden’s memory in his report on the US president’s handling of classified documents.
Updated
Hur says 'partisan politics has no place' in his report
Georgia congressman Hank Johnson suggested that Robert Hur was “doing everything you can do to get Trump re-elected to get appointed as a federal judge” or another justice department role.
Johnson said:
You knew that would play into the Republicans’ narrative that the president is senile. That is why they are having you here today.
Hur reacted angrily, saying:
I have no such aspirations. Partisan politics has no place whatsoever in my work.
Hur has acknowledged that he is a registered Republican.
Updated
Matt Gaetz, the Republican congressman from Florida, accused former special counsel Robert Hur of being lenient on Joe Biden because of “senile cooperator theory”.
Gaetz said Hur’s assessment of Biden’s mental acuity was based on the fact that the president “cooperated and the elevator didn’t go to the top floor”. Gaetz continued:
I don’t believe Biden should have been charged, I don’t think Trump should have been charged.
Steve Cohen, the Democrat congressman from Tennessee, pushed back on Gaetz’s comments, which he said were “disrespectful of senior people”.
Rep. Steve Cohen takes umbrage at the conflation of people with memory issues and "senile" people pic.twitter.com/N82iUYinzu
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 12, 2024
Updated
Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House oversight committee, accused Republicans of appointing themselves “amateur memory detectives” and said they had “completely lost their way” in their support of Donald Trump.
As lawmakers “play pin the tail on the donkey on this wild goose chase”, Trump is engaged in a “full-blown embrace and romance with authoritarian dictators and communist tyrants” including the leaders of Hungary, Russia and North Korea, Raskin said.
Raskin added:
This is a memory test, but it’s not a memory test for President Biden. It’s a memory test for all of America. Do we remember fascism? Remember Nazism?
That’s what all of this is about. It’s about trying to pull the wool over the eyes of America, because the tyrants and dictators of the world are on the march today.
Raskin: "Our colleagues have switched over from being impeachment investigators -- which is how this whole thing started -- to be amateur memory specialists, giving us their drive-by diagnoses of the POTUS." pic.twitter.com/4A7orsJRmA
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 12, 2024
Updated
Tom McClintock, the Republican congressman from California, said former special counsel Robert Hur had established a “frightening” doctrine in his decision to not charge Joe Biden for his handling of classified documents.
McClintock asked Hur:
Is it now OK to keep classified documents in my garage and take them out and show them to my associates?
Hur responded:
I would not recommend it.
McClintock then said:
All I have to do when I’m caught taking home classified materials to say ‘I’m sorry, Mr. Hur, but I’m getting old, my memories not so great.’
This is the doctrine that you’ve established in our laws now and it’s frightening.
Updated
Jim Jordan, the Republican chair of the House judiciary committee, argued that Joe Biden held on to classified documents because he wanted to write a book off of them.
Jordan said Biden had made $8m in a book advance, and that he had “eight million reasons to break the rules”.
The New York Times has pointed out that the classified documents found in Biden’s Delaware garage were from a 2009 Obama debate about the Afghanistan war, and that Biden’s book was about the death of his son, Beau, and did not mention that issue.
“Joe Biden had eight million reasons to break the rules.”
— The Recount (@therecount) March 12, 2024
— House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) argues President Biden improperly held onto classified documents because he wanted to make money from a memoir. pic.twitter.com/Lq9wgVomfp
Updated
Jerry Nadler, the Democrat House judiciary committee ranking member, pressed former special counsel Robert Hur on the legal standard necessary to file charges.
Nadler argued that “so many people” have taken Hur’s findings “out of context”, and noted that the report ultimately concluded that Biden could not be charged with a crime because the special counsel could not find sufficient evidence to charge the president.
Addressing Hur, Nadler said:
You have been a prosecutor for a long time. Would you agree that there is no such thing as being a little charged for a crime? You’re either charged or you are not charged.
Hur replied:
Yes, it is binary.
Nadler to Hur: "You have been a prosecutor for a long time. Would you agree that there is no such thing as being a little bit charged for a crime?" pic.twitter.com/uQliVgnfyz
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 12, 2024
James Comer, the Republican chair of the House oversight committee, said that one of his first actions in his role was to launch an investigation into Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents.
In his opening statement, Comer said that the investigation uncovered “alarming” information that “contradict[s] the White House’s and President Biden’s personal attorney’s narrative” about the discovery of classified documents at the Penn Biden center. Comer said:
Why did President Biden keep documents in unsecure locations for years? Many questions remain. But now the White House is obstructing Congress as we seek the truth for the American people.
Jamie Raskin, the Democrat House oversight ranking member, used his opening statement to note that Biden offered “complete and unhesitating cooperation” with the special counsel’s investigation, and that he “did not assert executive privilege or claim absolute immunity for presidential crimes”, unlike Donald Trump.
He did not hide boxes of documents under his bed or in a bathtub. He did not fight investigators nor did he seek to redact a single word of Mr Hur’s report.
Citing the separate special counsel investigation into Trump’s classified documents case, Trump “not only refused to return the documents for months, but he also obstructed justice by enlisting others to destroy evidence and then to lie about it,” Raskin said.
Updated
Hur says his assessment of Biden's memory 'accurate and fair'
In his opening statement, former special counsel Robert Hur defended his descriptions of Joe Biden’s memory and its relevance in his report as “necessary, accurate and fair”.
Hur said:
There has been a lot of attention paid to language in the report about the president’s memory, so let me say a few words about that. My task was to determine whether the president retained or disclosed national defense information “willfully” – meaning, knowingly and with the intent to do something the law forbids. I could not make that determination without assessing the president’s state of mind.
Hur said that for that reason, he had to “consider the president’s memory and overall mental state, and how a jury likely would perceive his memory and mental state in a criminal trial”. He added:
My assessment in the report about the relevance of the president’s memory was necessary and accurate and fair. Most importantly, 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. I explained to the attorney general my decision and the reasons for it. That’s what I was required to do.
Updated
Robert Hur delivers opening statement to Congress
Former special counsel Robert Hur has begun delivering his opening statement to the House judiciary committee.
Hur says he is privileged to have served the country, most of those years with the Department of Justice including as a line prosecutor, a supervisor, the principal associate deputy attorney general, a US attorney and a special counsel.
He says he has served these roles “with gratitude” and as the son of immigrants from Korea. He says:
No matter the role, no matter the administration, I have applied the same standards and the same impartiality. My respect for the justice department and my commitment to this country are why I agreed to serve as special counsel when asked by the attorney general.
Updated
Democrat Jerry Nadler highlights distinction between Biden and Trump cases
Jerry Nadler, the Democrat House judiciary committee ranking member, began his opening statement by saying that House Republicans are “desperate to convince America that white conservative men are on the losing end of a two-tiered justice system, a theory … that has no basis in reality”.
Special counsel Robert Hur’s report helps “draw a distinction” between Joe Biden and Donald Trump and it “represents the complete and total exoneration of President Biden”, Nadler said.
Nadler then played a compilation of Trump appearing to have memory lapses including saying the wrong names for people and looking confused.
Biden volunteered to sit through a five-hour interview with Hur, where he “probably committed a verbal slip or two”, Nadler said.
And then, there is Donald Trump. What kind of man bungles not one, but dozens of opportunities to avoid criminal liability. What does that say about his mental state?
Updated
Republican chair of the House judiciary committee Jim Jordan’s opening statement accused Joe Biden of “arrogance” and said what came through Robert Hur’s report was that the president “felt he was entitled”.
Jordan then used his statement to play a large part of the president’s press conference that he gave after the release of the special counsel’s report.
In his response, Jerry Nadler, the Democrat House judiciary committee ranking member, jokingly thanked Jordan for having “such admiration for the president that you’ve allowed him to take the first 10 minutes off this hearing”.
Jim Jordan, the Republican chair of the House judiciary committee, began the hearing by claiming that Robert Hurt’s report determined that Joe Biden “unlawfully” retained classified information.
Hur’s report found that Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen”.
But the special counsel concluded that criminal charges would not be warranted against Biden in relation to wrongly retaining classified material.
The report said that even if Biden were not president, Hur would not recommend criminal charges.
Updated
House judiciary committee hearing begins with special counsel Robert Hur to testify
Special counsel Robert Hur is about to testify in front of the Republican-led House judiciary committee.
The scheduled start of the hearing was disrupted by shouts from members of audience protesting against Israel’s war in Gaza.
Updated
The White House is planning to fact-check Robert Hur’s testimony on Capitol Hill in real time, administration officials have said.
White House officials will be releasing rapid responses to claims by both congressional Republicans and the special counsel himself, NBC and CNN reported.
Updated
Special counsel Robert Hur has arrived ahead of a hearing of the House judiciary committee on Capitol Hill, where will testify about his investigation into Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents.
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Transcript of Biden's interview with Robert Hur paints nuanced picture
Over five hours of interviews, Joe Biden repeatedly told special counsel Robert Hur that he never meant to retain classified information after he left the vice-presidency, but he was at times fuzzy about dates and said he was unfamiliar with the paper trail for some of the sensitive documents he handled.
In his report, Hur concluded that Biden should not face criminal charges over his mishandling of documents but also impugned the president’s age and competence. Hur wrote in his report:
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.
But a review of a transcript of the interviews by the Associated Press shows that while Biden fumbled some details in his interview, it also raises questions about Hur’s depiction of the 81-year-old president as having “significant limitations” on his memory.
Robert Hur has surrounded himself with Republican partisans and Donald Trump allies during the lead-up to his appearance before the House judiciary committee today, according to the Independent report.
The paper cited sources who said they were “alarmed” by Hur’s choice of associates ahead of Tuesday’s hearing, including retaining William Burck, “a veteran Washington lawyer with deep ties to the Republican political establishment”, as his personal attorney.
Burck is a former federal prosecutor who then served as President George W Bush’s lawyer and a former deputy at the Bush White House. He also represented three Trump White House officials during the justice department’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
A source told the Independent that both Hur and Burck “have long histories as Republican partisans”, adding that Hur’s legal team “has not been particularly communicative” with the Democratic side of the panel in the run-up to the former special counsel’s testimony.
Another source told the paper that committee members have taken note of Hur’s legal team and “are expecting him to attempt to inflict as much political harm” on Joe Biden as he can. The source added:
Where people like .... Bill Burck come in is to help him weaponise the report he wrote in order to damage the president.
Updated
Robert Hur is also expected to defend his investigation into Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents as having been carried out “fairly, thoroughly, and professionally”, according to his opening statement obtained by Politico.
Hur will say that his team conducted a “thorough, independent investigation” and identified that the president had “willfully retained classified materials after the end of his vice presidency, when he was a private citizen”.
We did not, however, identify evidence that rose to the level of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Because the evidence fell short of that standard, I declined to recommend criminal charges against Mr Biden.
The justice department required him to write a report explaining his decision to the US attorney general, Hur is expected to say.
I understood that my explanation about this case had to include rigorous, detailed, and thorough analysis. In other words, I needed to show my work … 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.
Updated
Hur to defend comments on Biden's memory as 'necessary, accurate and fair'
Robert Hur is expected to double down on his comments on Joe Biden’s memory that he made in his report on the president’s handling of classified documents when he appears before the House judiciary committee this morning.
According to his opening statement, obtained by Politico, Hur will argue that his assessment of Biden’s memory in the 388-page report released last month was “necessary and accurate and fair” and that his job required him to “consider the president’s memory and overall mental state, and how a jury likely would perceive his memory and mental state in a criminal trial”.
The statement goes on:
I did not sanitize my explanation. Nor did I disparage the president unfairly. I explained to the attorney general my decision and the reasons for it. That’s what I was required to do.
Updated
Hur to testify as private citizen after leaving justice department
Robert Hur, the former Trump-appointed special counsel who spent the last year investigating Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents, will testify before the House judiciary committee as a private citizen after leaving the justice department.
According to a report by the Independent, Hur arranged his departure from the justice department to be official as of Monday 11 March, meaning that he will appear on Capitol Hill as a private citizen with no constraints on his testimony.
The paper quoted a House judiciary committee source as saying that Hur’s departure from government service a day before his scheduled appearance is a “major red flag for Democrats” and makes it “more problematic”.
Hur finished up his work last week and is no longer with the justice department, according to a department spokesperson.
Updated
Special counsel Robert Hur to testify on Biden classified documents probe
Good morning US politics readers. Robert Hur is set to testify this morning in front of the Republican-controlled House judiciary committee weeks after his report into Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents after his vice-presidency.
In his report released in February, Hur, a former US attorney appointed by Donald Trump, recommended that Biden not be charged for possessing classified documents while criticizing the president’s ability to recall events, saying that a potential jury would likely find him to be a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”.
Hur’s report drew immediate backlash from the president’s Democratic allies and from Biden himself, who angrily pushed back on comments about his mental acuity particularly over Hur’s mention that he “did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died”. Biden said of the special counsel at the time:
I don’t need anyone, anyone, to remind me when he passed away. How the hell dare he raise that.
But the transcript of the interview contradicts the president’s characterization, and appears to show Biden indeed struggled to recall the exact year his son’s death occurred. It was also Biden himself who first brought up Beau’s death, not Hur, the transcript showed.
Hur will face questions from both parties when the committee convenes at 10am ET today. Led by Trump ally Jim Jordan, the panel’s Republicans have spearheaded much of the House GOP’s investigations into Biden, including the effort to impeach him.
Meanwhile, Georgia, Mississippi and Washington hold their primary elections today, and Hawaii is holding its Republican caucuses. Democrats abroad and in the Northern Mariana territory vote today as well. Although Biden and Trump are the presumed Democratic and Republican nominees, the election in Georgia will offer a preview of what’s to come in November in a state that Biden won in 2020 and where Trump is facing multiple indictments.
Here’s what else we’re watching today (all times eastern):
10am. The House judiciary committee will hear testimony from special counsel Robert Hur
10.30am. The Senate will meet to take up the first of several judicial nominations.
12pm. Joe Biden will participate in a campaign meeting in Washington with Teamsters members.
1.30pm. The White House daily press briefing.
3.45pm. Kamala Harris will depart San Francisco and fly to Denver to speak at a campaign fundraiser.
4pm Biden will meet with Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, and prime minister, Donald Tusk.
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