Based on Robert Hur’s investigation, Joe Biden willfully took, and kept classified documents when he was Vice President.
A President can have possession of, and declassify, documents at will. A Vice President cannot, and therefore has no legal basis to be in possession of them.
But, in Hur’s opinion, Biden should not be tried for this 100% actionable offense.
Why?
Here is your answer, from Jeannie Suk Gerson’s article at The New Yorker (the bold print is mine):
Hur’s report stated that his investigation “uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice-presidency when he was a private citizen.” Yet Hur concluded that “the evidence does not establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.” He reasoned that “at trial, 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.” In Hur’s view, “it would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him—by then a former president well into his eighties—of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”
Translation: Biden illegally kept the classified documents. But Robert Hur – who was educated in English literature and Law, not psychology – is of the entirely non-professional opinion that Biden should be let off the hook.
Why? Because a jury would see him as doddering and mentally challenged.
Is that good enough for you? Or would you like others – not just Hur – to hear Biden’s comments/answers and evaluate them?
Well, that’s not going to happen.
How come? Here’s your answer, via these excerpts from Alexander Mallin’s article for ABC News:
The Justice Department on Thursday informed House Republicans that President Joe Biden has formally asserted executive privilege over the audio of his interview with special counsel Robert Hur, a move that DOJ says effectively shields Attorney General Merrick Garland from any criminal exposure as the Republican lawmakers move toward trying to hold him in contempt of Congress.
Citing what it describes as as “extraordinary” cooperation and “good faith” efforts to provide Republicans will all relevant materials from Hur’s investigation into President Biden’s handling of classified documents while out of office, the department argued disclosing the audio would set an untenable precedent where high-profile figures under criminal scrutiny would second-guess cooperating with the government in the future.
“The Attorney General must draw a line that safeguards the Department from improper political influence and protects our principles, our law enforcement work, and the people who carry out that work independently, without fear or favor,” Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte wrote in the letter. “The Committees seek to hold the Attorney General in contempt not for failing in his duties, but for upholding them.”
Uriarte further details in his letter how the department previously made available the transcript of Biden’s interview with Hur, and argues Republicans have failed to provide any reason that the audio would add further value to their efforts to investigate Biden.
There you go. The reason no one is going to hear that interview and decide if Hur’s personal opinion – not fact but personal opinion – makes any sense is that Joe Biden has unilaterally decided they can’t
Got that? The guy who would be judged as either a criminal or a cognitive mess has personally prevented anyone from determining which it is.
Does that sit well with you? Because it sure as eff doesn’t sit well with me.
I’ll tell you this, though; what it does do is give Republicans a major campaign issue for the 2024 campaign…if they are smart enough to use it (which, they being Republicans, is very, very much in doubt).
First off, they should be demanding that Biden release the audio, while pointing out to voters that an innocent man would not be hiding it.
And then? Every time a Biden supporter claims he has his full mental acuity, they should be demanding that same person therefore support his arrest for willfully taking and keeping classified documents when he had no legal right to them…
…and if/when the Biden supporter claims the same goes for Trump, immediately point out that, unlike Biden, Trump, as President had every right to do so and every right to declassify them.
Think the Republican “brain trust”, such as it is, can figure that out? I wonder….
