Biden responds to special counsel report on handling of classified documents

Special counsel Robert Hur released a searing report Thursday that President Joe Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified military and national security information but will not face charges after a year-long investigation into the handling of classified documents by the president.  

One reason Hur chose not to bring charges, according to the report, was because it would be difficult to prosecute Biden, who could appear to a jury as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

"We concluded that no criminal charges are warranted in this matter,” Hur concluded. “We would reach the same conclusion even if Department of Justice policy did not foreclose criminal charges against a sitting president.”   

The special counsel investigation found Biden knew about the classified documents in his home as far back as 2017, when he was no longer vice president, and that he shared some of the information with the ghostwriter for his memoir published that year.  

The public release of the 345-page report marks the conclusion of Hur’s investigation.  

House Oversight Committee Republicans were already criticizing Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report on the possible mishandling of classified documents connected to President Joe Biden even before it has been released. 

The GOP-led panel, which has investigated Biden’s handling of classified documents, criticized the Department of Justice for not bringing criminal charges. 

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced in January 2023 that the Justice Department’s probe into classified documents found at President Joe Biden’s home and former private office will be overseen by Robert Hur, a former US attorney in Maryland who has a “long and distinguished career as a prosecutor."

Hur was nominated to be US attorney in Maryland by then-President Donald Trump in 2017 and he served in the role until his resignation in 2021. In the job, Hur played a key role in a number of high-profile cases, including a children’s book scandal involving then-Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh that resulted in Pugh being sentenced to three years in prison.

He most recently worked in private practice in Washington, DC.

“Rob has been around long enough – he knows what he is getting into,” former Trump deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, for whom Hur served for a time as a senior adviser, told CNN. "I think he understands the needs to ignore politics and focus on what matters,” Rosenstein added.

In announcing the appointment, Garland noted that Hur “supervised some of the department’s more important national security, public corruption and other high-profile matters.”

“I will ensure that Mr. Hur receives all the resources he needs to conduct his work,” he said.

Hur vowed to “conduct the assigned investigation with fair, impartial, and dispassionate judgment.”

Read more about the special counsel's career here.

Special counsel Robert Hur’s report on President Joe Biden's handling of classified documents has been delivered to Congress, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN. 

The White House did not answer when asked if President Joe Biden has been personally briefed on the contents of the special counsel report into the possible mishandling of classified documents at two locations connected to the president.  

White House aides have been preparing for the special counsel report's release and are bracing for Republicans to use it as political fodder in this election year. Hur’s team is not planning to bring any criminal charges, as CNN has previously reported.

CNN's Betsy Klein contributed reporting.

Special counsel Robert Hur has concluded his yearlong investigation into possible mishandling of classified documents at two locations connected to President Joe Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a letter to lawmakers on Wednesday.

Garland said that Hur has submitted his report and that the White House counsel’s office is still reviewing it for executive privilege issues. As soon as that is complete, the attorney general will submit the report to Congress.

More about the report: CNN has previously reported that Hur’s team is not planning to bring any criminal charges, but the report could provide fodder for Biden’s political opponents as he seeks to make his 2024 bid a referendum on Donald Trump.

The White House counsel’s office concluded its review of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report on the possible mishandling of classified documents connected to President Joe Biden, declining to assert any executive privilege in the report. 

In a letter to Congress Thursday, Attorney Gen. Merrick Garland said the report would be submitted to Congress once the White House counsel’s review was complete. 

“As I have made clear regarding each Special Counsel who has served since I have taken office, I am committed to making as much of the Special Counsel’s report public as possible,” Garland wrote in his letter to members of the judiciary committees.