Why US president Joe Biden won’t be charged with mishandling classified documents

United States president Joe Biden’s campaign team is heaving a sigh of relief. That’s because the special counsel investigating the president’s handling of classified documents has concluded that no criminal charges are warranted in the matter. In a 345-page report, Special Counsel Robert Hur — a well-respected former US Attorney — stated that while Biden had “wilfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency,” he would not be criminally prosecuted, as “at trial, 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 analysts observe that the report, while a relief from a legal standpoint, is actually damning for the president ahead of the 2024 presidential elections, as it paints a harsh portrait of his conduct and mental faculties. We take a closer look at what the report entailed and how it affects Biden and his ongoing campaign. What’s the classified documents case? Special Counsel Robert Hur on Thursday released his report on the matter of handling of classified documents by Joe Biden during his vice-presidency. For those who don’t remember, between November 2022 and January 2023, approximately 30 classified documents were discovered by President Joe Biden’s attorneys in his former office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, DC, and in his personal residence in Wilmington, Delaware, dating to his time in the Senate and his vice presidency in the Obama administration. The first set was discovered in November 2022 in a locked closet at the Penn Biden Center and the second set was found at the president’s personal residence in Delaware between December 2022 and January 2023. On 14 November 2022, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced an investigation in the matter and Robert K Hur was appointed as special counsel to investigate “possible unauthorised removal and retention of classified documents or other records”. What are the findings from Hur’s report? On Thursday, Special Counsel Hur released an extensive report in which he determined that President Biden had carelessly handled classified materials, but he would not be criminally charged on the same. One of the report’s main focus was that Biden had a faulty and unreliable memory — a fact that the Republicans have emphasised on in the past too. The report said that Biden “wilfully” took classified materials but probably would not be convicted by a jury because they would see him as “a well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” The report says Biden could not remember the years he served as vice president or when his son Beau Biden died and even was incorrect in his rememberances of the Afghanistan conflict while he served in office with Barack Obama. “He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (‘if it was 2013 — when did I stop being vice president?’), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began,” the report said. It added: “He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died.” [caption id=“attachment_13708622” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] This image, contained in the report from special counsel Robert Hur, shows boxes in a storage closet at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, in March 2021. AP[/caption] The report also stated that the documents found in Biden’s possession, were indeed, very highly-classified material. As per the report, investigators found notebooks in Biden’s possession which contained handwritten notes from meetings with Obama and senior administration officials, as well as meetings about foreign adversaries and counterterrorism strategy. What was perhaps one of the most surprising parts of the report was the way in which the classified documents were kept. The files were discovered “near a collapsed dog crate, a dog bed, a Zappos box, an empty bucket, a broken lamp wrapped with duct tape, potting soil, and synthetic firewood”. Also read: How classified documents have been a source of controversy in the US Why Hur decided not to charge Biden? Hur has written in his report that owing to Biden’s memory gaps and his representation to a jury, he chose not to criminally prosecute the president. For instance, Hur said that the memory gaps that Biden had would serve him well if the matter went to trial. “In a case where the government must prove that Biden knew he had possession of the classified Afghanistan documents after the vice presidency and chose to keep those documents, knowing he was violating the law, we expect that at trial, his attorneys would emphasise these limitations in his recall,” the special counsel wrote. Moreover, the way in which he stored the documents also matters. “A reasonable juror could conclude that this is not where a person intentionally stores what he supposedly considers to be important classified documents, critical to his legacy. Rather, it looks more like a place a person stores classified documents he has forgotten about or is unaware of,” the report read. [caption id=“attachment_13708642” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] This image, contained in the report from special counsel Robert Hur, and marked with the number 1, shows a damaged box where classified documents were found in the garage of President Joe Biden in Wilmington, Delaware, during a search by the FBI in 2022. AP[/caption] Hur also made a distinction between Biden and Trump’s case on the same matter. He credits Biden for immediately handing over the documents to investigators after he found them. However, Trump was contrasting in style. “Most notably, after being given multiple chances to return classified documents and avoid prosecution, Trump allegedly did the opposite. According to the indictment, he not only refused to return the documents for many months, but he also obstructed justice by enlisting others to destroy evidence and then to lie about it.” How did Biden react? While the report absolved Biden of criminal liability, it’s not a pretty picture for the president. There are already concerns about his age and his mental capabilities , and the report only furthers this worry. Shortly after the report was made public, Biden addressed the nation and slammed it for questioning his memory. In angry and fiery remarks, Biden said: “My memory is fine.” He added, “There’s reference that I don’t remember when my son died. How in the hell dare he raise that?” “I don’t need anyone to remind me when he passed away,” Biden said of his son, who passed away from brain cancer in 2015. Biden’s legal team has also written in a letter to Hur, “We do not believe that the report’s treatment of President Biden’s memory is accurate or appropriate.” “The report uses highly prejudicial language to describe a commonplace occurrence among witnesses: a lack of recall of years-old events,” the lawyers wrote. [caption id=“attachment_13708652” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Special Counsel Robert Hur has emphasised that US president Joe Biden had a faulty and unreliable memory during his questioning. File image/Reuters[/caption] How has Trump and Republicans reacted? Donald Trump too is unhappy with the report. He took to his social media platform and posted: “TWO-TIERED SYSTEM OF JUSTICE AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL SELECTIVE PROSECUTION”. He further added that Biden’s case was “100 times different and more severe than mine”, adding: “I did nothing wrong, and I cooperated far more.” Nikki Haley, Trump’s remaining Republican primary challenger, said on social media that the findings represented a “double standard” — and used the report to attack both her primary opponent and Biden. “If Biden’s defence is old age and forgetfulness, Trump can easily make the same claim,” she wrote. “Trump should quickly hire Biden’s lawyers.” With inputs from agencies