On Tuesday, the Home Judiciary Committee grilled former Particular Counsel Robert Hur about his investigation and report into President Biden’s mishandling of labeled info.
As anticipated, each Republicans and Democrats utilizing Hur and his report to attain political factors. Democrats tried to show Tuesday’s listening to right into a present trial directed at former President Donald Trump for hiding labeled info at his Mar-a-Lago complicated. Republicans questioned why Hur declined to deliver fees when he discovered that Biden had been taking labeled info dwelling and to his private workplace for many years.
However committee Republicans missed their large alternative. Somewhat than give attention to whether or not Hur ought to have indicted Biden, they need to have targeted on why Hur didn’t indict Biden. Famously, Hur wrote in his report final month that he declined to deliver fees towards the president as a result of, partially, he was an “aged man with a poor reminiscence” with whom a jury would possibly sympathize.
FORMER SPECIAL COUNSEL ROBERT HUR TESTIFIES ON FINDINGS FROM BIDEN CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS PROBE
For many Individuals, the vital subject shouldn’t be whether or not Biden took labeled paperwork dwelling after the top of his vice presidency in 2017, however whether or not he’s mentally match to proceed serving as president. Certainly, below long-standing Justice Division precedent, federal prosecutors are forbidden from bringing legal fees towards a sitting president.
Tuesday’s hearings revealed Hur to be a straight-shooting prosecutor, very similar to the excellent profession officers on the Division of Justice with whom now we have each labored. Hur declared in his opening assertion that he would “chorus from speculating or commenting on areas outdoors the scope of the investigation.” He caught to that all through the entire listening to, repeatedly referring to his written February 2024 report and refusing makes an attempt to get him to say one thing extra damaging about both Biden or Trump.
Curiously, some congressional Democrats determined to assault Hur’s integrity despite the fact that he had declined to deliver fees towards the chief of their get together. Congressman Hank Johnson, D-Ga., accused Hur of launching an deliberately partisan assault: “You used your report back to trash and smear President Biden … and also you knew that will play into the Republicans’ narrative that the president is unfit for workplace as a result of he’s senile.” (Hur later acknowledged that he didn’t discover Biden to be senile nor did he use that phrase in his report.) Johnson additionally baselessly accused Hur of being a Federalist Society member (he’s not) and of “doing every thing you are able to do to get President Trump reelected to be able to get appointed as a federal choose or maybe to a different place within the Division of Justice.”
Issues went downhill from there.
SCHIFF SPARS WITH HUR IN HEATED EXCHANGE OVER REPORT THAT ‘DISPARAGED’ BIDEN: ‘THAT DID NOT HAPPEN’
California Democrat Reps. Adam Schiff (who’s presently operating to interchange the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein) and Eric Swalwell each attacked Hur. Swalwell claimed that Hur described Biden as having a “photographic reminiscence” concerning his Wilmington dwelling and asking Hur to pledge that he wouldn’t search a job in a possible second Trump administration; Hur declined.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., falsely claimed that Hur’s report was a “full exoneration of President Joe Biden” – Hur needed to repeatedly state that he had not exonerated him. Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., didn’t even hassle to ask Hur any questions and as an alternative gave a 5-minute speech that accused Trump of being the “white supremacist in chief.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION
Republicans made extra progress. Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, had Hur affirm his report’s discovering that Biden earned $8 million from utilizing the labeled info to jot down his November 2017 ebook, “Promise Me, Dad.” Biden shared that info together with his ghostwriter. Matt Gaetz , R-Fla., bought Hur to agree that President Biden’s repeated declare that he “by no means shared” any of the labeled paperwork was inaccurate. Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., succeeded in persuading Hur to agree {that a} affordable jury may have convicted Biden, and that Biden’s actions risked critically damaging nationwide safety.
However Republican members did not mine an important space for questioning. Whereas the Justice Division launched the transcript of the interview, solely Hur’s private testimony may permit the American public to actually perceive President Biden’s psychological health. Committee members didn’t require Hur to handle, for instance, Biden’s demeanor, alertness, reminiscence, truthfulness, and total psychological state.
Republican members didn’t strongly comply with up on Hur’s conclusion, in his report, that Biden’s solutions had been generally “not credible.” They might have requested Hur to elucidate precisely which of his observations and Biden’s solutions led him to imagine {that a} jury won’t convict Biden, and whether or not the DOJ may rebut these arguments at trial. They might have requested Hur why he didn’t give attention to the labeled paperwork in Biden’s possession that had been from his senate days; senators could not take away such paperwork nor any notes about them from the SCIF, and thus Biden knowingly and wrongfully eliminated and retained these labeled paperwork.
The Home Judiciary Committee members additionally may have delved deeper into the interview transcripts. The transcript confirmed that Biden couldn’t keep in mind when he was vice chairman or when Trump was elected.
It confirmed that Biden himself had introduced up his son, Beau, after which incorrectly stating that 2017-2018 was the “timeframe” when “my son [Beau] is – both been deployed or is dying.” Beau Biden was deployed in Iraq from 2008-2009 as a member of the Delaware Nationwide Guard, and tragically died of mind most cancers on Might 30, 2015.
The transcript reveals that President Biden answered Hur’s questions with “don’t know,” “don’t recall,” or “I’ve no god**mn thought” greater than 100 occasions and couldn’t keep in mind what a fax machine was.
Was Biden offended? Obstructive? Did he actually not keep in mind or was he merely repeating a coached line when he was in bother? Was Biden’s tendency to get lost into nostalgic tales attributable to his age or psychological decline, or was it evasive and/or obstructive?
Congress ought to critically think about exploring these questions additional. Chairman Jordan already has taken the following step by demanding that DOJ flip over all audio recordings and transcripts of the interviews. With Biden having primarily secured the Democratic Social gathering nomination and Trump on the verge of securing the Republican one, the Home Judiciary Committee owes it to the American public to disclose info on whether or not the incumbent is mentally match for a second time period in workplace.
John Shu is a authorized scholar and commentator who served within the administrations of Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush.