4 key questions ahead of Robert Hur’s testimony on Biden’s mishandling of classified documents

4 critical issues ahead of Robert Hur's testimony on Biden's misuse of secret documents

Special counsel Robert Hur, who looked into President Joe Biden's improper handling of secret documents and dropped a political bombshell regarding Biden's memory, will be the center of attention on Tuesday.

The Republican-controlled House Judiciary Committee has scheduled a testimony by the special counsel, where he will face a barrage of inquiries regarding his 388-page report that was published last month.

Hur came to the conclusion that Biden had inappropriately released classified information as a private citizen and mishandled classified material after a year-long inquiry. Hur countered that even if the Justice Department had permitted him to indict a sitting president, he would not have pursued charges because there was insufficient evidence to bring charges against Biden.
However, Hur's evaluation of Biden's mental faculties was what really shocked everyone in Washington. He explained the difficult task prosecutors may have in persuading a prospective jury that Biden was a criminal by referring to Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”.

Tuesday morning, after he dodged questioning from Hur and his investigators over the course of the previous two days, Biden cracked jokes and revealed extensive, intricate tales from his decades-long political career. October, according to an interview transcript that news organizations looked over. The president also showed signs of memory loss, such as the one Hur reported in his final report, where the president seemed to be unable to recall the year his son Beau passed away.

Regarding the memory and age of Biden, what will Hur say?

Hur's assessment provided a devastating picture of President Biden's memory, calling it at times “hazy” and “significantly limited.” Republicans will surely challenge Hur's mental acuity.

Hur will say that in order to justify the decision not to prosecute Biden, "I understood that my explanation about this case had to include rigorous, detailed, and thorough analysis," according to a draft of Hur's opening remarks that CNN was able to receive on Tuesday. Put otherwise, I had to present my work. In the same way that I would anticipate any prosecutor to demonstrate their work in elucidating the choice to pursue charges or not.

Hur will discuss his decision to include a reference to Biden's recollection in his report, saying, "I had to examine the president's memory and general mental health, as well as how a jury would probably interpret these aspects in a criminal prosecution.

Republicans swiftly took advantage of the research to claim that Biden is unsuitable to serve, even though he and his allies have vehemently rejected the portrayal of a defective memory. This is especially true as they plan to use Biden's age as a major point of attack in the 2024 presidential contest. (Donald Trump is only a few years younger at 77, while Biden is the oldest US president in history at 81.)

The report described Biden as a “elderly man with a poor memory” and added that, in the president's interview with Hur’s office in October, Biden could not recall the precise year that his son Beau passed away or the years that he held the position of vice president under President Obama.

Later, a clearly enraged Biden told reporters, "I am well-meaning." I'm an old man, too.I also know precisely what I'm doing.

 About the report's mention of Beau's passing, Biden enquired.

Noting that the interview took place immediately following Hamas' October 7 attack against Israel, White House officials and Biden's personal attorney criticized the report's claims about the president's memory as inappropriate and false. They also maintained that Biden was fully engaged despite everything else going on.

A few Republicans in the House have demanded that the Vice President and the Cabinet utilize the 25th Amendment to eliminate Hur said that Biden's mental state made it impossible for him to carry out the responsibilities of his position, leading many other Republicans to agree and remove Biden from office.

How does Hur distinguish between Trump's and Biden's handling of secret information?

Hur will provide testimony regarding Biden's improper handling of secret documents on Tuesday during a Senate committee. A court hearing regarding Trump's purportedly unlawful mishandling of secret documents is scheduled for two days in Florida as part of the Mar-a-Lago lawsuit, which is being handled by special counsel Jack Smith.

Intense political debate and backbiting have taken place in Washington regarding the parallels and discrepancies between the two investigations as well as the fact that Trump was charged while Biden was not. (Trump entered a not guilty plea.)

Hur's own justification for why, in essence, Trump behaved worse than Biden on Tuesday will likely be the most effective line of attack for Democrats. In his report, he made a point of highlighting the "material distinction" between the two investigations and how Trump and Biden followed different routes.

Hur stated that in contrast, Mr. Biden provided the Department of Justice and the National Archives with sensitive information, allowed searches to occur at several sites, including his houses, participated voluntarily in an interview, and otherwise assisted the inquiry.

Hur will remark, "There too, I called it like I saw it," in reference to the Trump case in his opening remarks.

Will Hur, in responding to queries from lawmakers, further emphasize these distinctions? We'll be closely watching his tone on this and how he describes Trump's actions, especially from Biden supporters.

Still, Republicans will undoubtedly capitalize on the that Biden was not charged while Trump was.

This reinforces the false narrative that Trump has made the center of his campaign: that he and other conservatives are being "weaponized" by the Justice Department and law enforcement. He has attacked all four of his ongoing criminal cases using this argument as a sword.

How will the GOP connect this to the impeachment process?

House Republicans are hoping that Hur's open testimony will give their floundering impeachment investigation of Biden new life.

Republicans connected Hur's work to their own investigation in their subpoena to the Justice Department for documents pertaining to Hur's probe ahead of the hearing, stating that they "are concerned that President Biden may have kept sensitive records relating to specific countries and his family's overseas business dealings.

According to a letter acquired by CNN, the Justice Department had given the House Oversight and Judiciary committees access to some, but not all, of the documents that Republicans had subpoenaed. These included the transcript and audio recordings of Biden's interview with the special counsel. Congress received the transcript from the Justice Department on Tuesday.

As stated in the letter, A call sheet from December 2015 detailing the goals of a conversation between the vice president Biden and the prime minister of Ukraine, talking points, and a non-verbatim transcript of the call are included in the first tranche for lawmakers to study in private.

Republicans have attempted to link these documents to their impeachment investigation, focusing on the unfounded claims that Biden misused his authority to remove a senior prosecutor from Ukraine because the prosecutor was allegedly looking into Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company that posed a threat to the president's son Hunter, a board member. From the time these claims originally surfaced in 2019, they have been disproven numerous times.

According to Hur's assessment, "no jury could reasonably find that national defense information was the substance of the call between President Biden with the Prime Minister of Ukraine." The Prime Minister complimented Mr. Biden for his speech to the Ukrainian parliament on December 9, 2015, as the two struck up a conversation. They didn't have a meaningful conversation about policy.

The exchanges on Hur's report between the Justice Department and the Executive Office of the President or President Biden's personal attorney were also given to House Republicans. Republicans are allegedly worried that limits were put on Hur to prevent him from pursuing material that would connect the president to his family's overseas business ventures, which is why they subpoenaed these documents.

Fifteen months later, Republicans have spent over 40 interviews with Biden family members, business associates, administration staff, Department of Justice officials, and Internal Revenue Service whistleblowers in addition to examining bank records and documents, but they have not been able to find proof to support their central accusations that the president used his official authority to further his family's foreign business interests or for personal financial gain.

Ever since the Republicans took back control of the House in 2023, the president's son has been the primary point of investigation. However, in his deposition last month, Hunter Biden did not present Republicans with a blazing gun; rather, he became the most recent witness to inform Republicans that the president was not connected to any of the family's overseas business ventures.

How is Hur going to respond to his moment of fame?

Since Robert Hur is not well-known, this is probably the most significant event in his career.

During the Trump administration, he seems to have attended just one White House press conference while serving as the US attorney for Maryland from April 2018 to February 2021. Although he gave a powerful speech at the White House platform, a press conference and a congressional grilling in front of politicians seeking their own viral moment are very different.

Hur is scheduled to appear before the House Judiciary Committee on three separate occasions in the last five years; the two prior instances indicate distinct approaches that could be employed by Hur.

2019 saw Robert Mueller's halting testimony regarding the Trump-Russia probe. He constantly told MPs to consult his report for the answers in order to sidestep queries. Democratic lawmakers wanted him to read aloud portions of his report so they could get soundbites regarding Trump's wrongdoings, but he refused. Many people were left wondering if any progress was made throughout the hearing.

When John Durham testified last year, he was more open to interacting with senators and more willing to provide thoughtful answers to their queries regarding the beginnings of the Russia probe. Even though he could have rigorously adhered to what was written in his report, he made the extraordinary effort to shield former Attorney General Bill Barr from Trump's public criticisms in one particularly memorable incident.

Hur's strategy will dictate how simple or complex it is. for legislators to seize the desired political opportunities.

Hur demonstrated that he isn't hesitant to step on a political landmine by providing commentary regarding Biden's mental state in his report, which some legal experts and White House officials have said wasn't needed. He will have to defend his assessment of Biden's weakness, though, given that the president shocked many on Capitol Hill with his vehement State of the Union address just five days prior.