WASHINGTON, Feb 8 (Reuters) – President Joe Biden will not face criminal charges for taking classified information about national security matters with him when he left the vice presidency in 2017, a U.S. prosecutor said in a report released on Thursday.
Special Counsel Robert Hur said he opted against bringing criminal charges after a 15-month investigation because Biden cooperated and would likely be difficult to convict due to his mental state.
“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,” Hur wrote.
Hur’s conclusion ensures that Biden, unlike his expected 2024 presidential rival Donald Trump, will not risk prison time for mishandling sensitive government documents.
But it could cause further embarrassment for Biden, 81, as he tries to convince voters that he is not too old to serve another four-year term. Biden has also sought to draw a contrast with Trump on issues of personal ethics and national security.
Trump has described the four criminal prosecutions he faces — including one for his handling of classified documents — as politically motivated and has stated that Biden was behind the state and federal cases.
A group allied with Trump’s campaign seized on Hur’s comments about Biden’s memory saying, “If you’re too senile to stand trial, then you’re too senile to be president,” said Alex Pfeiffer, communications director for Make America Great Again Inc. “Joe Biden is unfit to lead this nation.”
Hur wrote that Biden’s memory was “significantly limited” when he was interviewed by members of his prosecution team.
Biden’s lawyers said he had engaged in honest mistakes, not wrongdoing, and had cooperated with the investigation. They criticized Hur for overreach.
“It was plain from the outset that criminal charges were not warranted,” his lawyer Bob Bauer said. “Yet the special counsel could not refrain from investigative excess.”
White House lawyer Richard Sauber said Hur’s report contained “a number of inaccurate and inappropriate comments.”
Hur found that Biden took a handwritten memo to then-President Barack Obama in 2009 opposing a planned troop surge in Afghanistan, and handwritten notes related to intelligence briefings and national security meetings.
Reporting by Andrew Goudsward, additional reporting by Jeff Mason and Alexandra Ulmer; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone and Lisa Shumaker
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