1 year ago
The Justice Department special counsel’s Thursday report declining to charge President Joe Biden for mishandling classified documents handed fresh fodder to congressional Republicans who have questioned his fitness to be reelected.
The report, prepared by special counsel Robert Hur, concluded that criminal charges against Biden wouldn't be warranted even if DOJ lacked an internal policy against prosecuting sitting presidents. Hur’s investigation found evidence that Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency,” the report states, but it didn’t “establish Mr. Biden's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Several top Republicans were less incensed about that finding, however, than they were about the report’s contention that Biden would be perceived in any court proceedings as a “sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.”
“They didn’t want to bring charges against President Biden for the classified documents case because he’s too old and has a bad memory. They’re admitting what we all see every day,” House Judiciary Committee Republicans wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) added that the finding is “not exactly a glowing description” of Biden, while the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, quickly chimed in on X that “Joe Biden is unfit to be president.”
“Is this a joke?” posted Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a member of the Judiciary Committee.
The DOJ report follows House Republicans’ push to turn Biden’s handling of classified documents into a main focus of their sweeping impeachment inquiry into the president. House Republicans sought details from Attorney General Merrick Garland last year about the scope of Hur’s probe.
Richard Sauber, a special counsel to the president, appeared to indirectly hit back at Hur’s descriptions.
"We disagree with a number of inaccurate and inappropriate comments in the Special Counsel’s report," Sauber said in a statement. "Nonetheless, the most important decision the Special Counsel made — that no charges are warranted — is firmly based on the facts and evidence."
While Republicans focused most of their immediate reaction on the report’s descriptions of Biden’s memory, Hur’s team also revived a perennial talking point for Republicans: that the DOJ has become a “two-tier justice system,” holding Democratic allies to a lower standard than GOP ones. At the heart of this claim: the DOJ’s charges filed against former President Donald Trump for mishandling classified documents after leaving office.
“President Biden mishandled classified documents for years, storing them in the garage of his Delaware home, and yet, no charges are expected,” said Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.). “Tennesseans and Americans are fed up with the two tiers of justice that has become the status quo of this administration.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters that: “A lot of Republicans will think there’s a double standard.”
“The American people will make a decision on whether he’s up to another term based on things like this,” he added.
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