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You are here: Home / Politics / National Security / Thursday Night Open Thread: Today’s Teacup Tempest, Courtesy of Special Counsel Robert Hur

Thursday Night Open Thread: Today’s Teacup Tempest, Courtesy of Special Counsel Robert Hur

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Remember how some (outdated, unimportant) TOP SECRET papers turned up during a search of President Biden’s property, at the same time the FBI was toting box after box of highly sensitive material out of Mar-A-Lago? (Don’t worry, very few people *did* remember.) Well, after a thorough investigation, the Republican special counsel in charge of weighing Biden’s culpability decided he couldn’t make a case that wouldn’t be thrown out of court… but that didn’t stop Hur from trying a little Comey-dance for the compliant media.

Per NBC, “Biden won’t be charged in classified docs case; special counsel cites instances of ‘poor memory’”:

Special counsel Robert Hur has declined to prosecute President Joe Biden for his handling of classified documents but said in a report released Thursday that Biden’s practices “present serious risks to national security” and added that part of the reason he wouldn’t charge Biden was that the president could portray himself as an “elderly man with a poor memory” who would be sympathetic to a jury.

“Our investigation uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen,” the report said, but added that the evidence “does not establish Mr. Biden’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”

The report from Hur — who previously appointed by former President Donald Trump as one of the country’s top federal prosecutors — also made clear the “material distinctions” between a theoretical case against Biden and the pending case against Trump for his handling of classified documents, noting the “serious aggravating facts” in Trump’s case.

Biden said in a statement after the report became public that he was “pleased to see they reached the conclusion I believed all along they would reach — that there would be no charges brought in this case and the matter is now closed,” adding that he “cooperated completely, threw up no roadblocks, and sought no delays.”…

Andrew Weissman, who served on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, said on MSNBC on Thursday that Hur’s decision to lodge criticisms of Biden’s memory problems was “gratuitous” and reminded him of when former FBI Director James Comey held a press conference criticizing Hillary Clinton in the months before the 2016 election.

“This is not being charged. And yet a person goes out and gives their opinion with adjectives and adverbs about what they think, entirely inappropriate,” he said. “I think a really fair criticism of this is unfortunately, we’re seeing a redux of what we saw with respect to James Comey at the FBI with respect to Hillary Clinton in terms of really not adhering to what I think are the highest ideals of the Department of Justice.”…

The announcement tops off a lengthy saga that began in November 2022, after one of Biden’s personal attorneys found classified documents that appeared to be from the Obama administration at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, which Biden had used as a personal office after his vice presidential term concluded. Classified documents were later also found at Biden’s Delaware home.

With Hur’s announcement, Donald Trump remains the only president in history to face criminal charges, which include seven criminal charges in connection with mishandling classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago. According to the indictment in that case, Trump had more than 100 classified documents at his Florida home, including documents with “Top Secret” classification markings.

Reader Interactions

50Comments

  2. 2.

    Al Rennick

    Robert Hur performed a valuable public service for the country. Biden and Trump are both mentally unfit to serve as President.

  3. 3.

    Baud

    Reposting from downstairs

    Maybe we should consider rebooting the “Chill the fuck out, I’ve got this” posters from 2008.

    Also, I think the Senate passed the supplemental without the border stuff.

  6. 6.

    Scout211

    I have to say that I am relieved that this no-charge decision with a hefty dose of personal smears was released nine months before the election and not nine days before.

  12. 12.

    different-church-lady

    I especially like the part where they just admit they’re not going to charge him because the jury will never believe he’s a criminal.

  21. 21.

    Elizabelle

    Watching the C-Span clip.  I hate the fucking press corpse.  I wish they were on camera, so we could identify these ratfuckers.

    They are screaming.

  24. 24.

    Geminid

    I read a couple excerpts from Hur’s report and it was like they had been lifted from some op-ed piece. It’s the kind of stuff Mark Thiessen writes for the Washington Post. This guy Hur must think he’s a very special Special Prosecutor.

  25. 25.

    different-church-lady

    @Quinerly:

    DEMOCRATS: “Don’t tell me what to do!”

    ALSO DEMOCRATS: “I can’t believe Trump might be president again!”

  27. 27.

    Elizabelle

    The press sounded like howler monkeys.  One young-sounding man asked a respectful question, someone else asked about Gaza.

    Otherwise, howler monkeys.  Our zombified press corpse.

    Biden looked like he was undergoing an ordeal by fire.

  29. 29.

    oldgold

    Hur’s report is outrageous. The most outrageous part being his accusation that Biden’s memory was so bad thar he did not remember when his son Beau died.

    Only a very bad human being goes there.

  30. 30.

    wjca

    I love that Trump is insisting that Biden isn’t feeble minded at all.  In order to claim that Hur got played and gave Biden a pass.  But still….

  32. 32.

    Baud

    By the way, I’ve never heard of a criminal avoiding prosecution because he has a bad memory.  The whole thing reeks.

  33. 33.

    topclimber

    So the gist is that Biden can’t be charged while President because of DOJ policy and that reasonable doubt will exist in charging him as a civilian because by then Biden can plead bad memory and get sympathetic treatment from a jury TWO TO SIX years from now.

    Summary version: WTF?

  34. 34.

    japa21

    @oldgold: I can’t remember when my Mom died, and the only reason I remember when my Dad died (month only) is that my son was 6 months old.

  38. 38.

    The Dark Avenger

    Joe Biden can find the papers better if you’d just shut up for a couple of minutes.

  41. 41.

    Hildebrand

    I wonder if this report is so egregiously slanted that folks will look at it, if they do at all, and say, ‘yeah, well, clearly that guy is writing an op-ed’.

  42. 42.

    Elizabelle

    @Hildebrand:  That could happen.

    I hope President Biden gets as much rest as he can in the coming days, and that he avoids the fucking DC press corpse en masse.  Maybe gives an interview, when he wants to, to a professional journalist.

    My god, the people in that room sounded awful.  Lots of female voices among the howler monkeys.   So ashamed of them.

  43. 43.

    different-church-lady

    REPORTER SHOUTING: “Mr. President! What about these reports you can’t remember anything?”
    BIDEN: “Who the fuck are you again?”

  47. 47.

    topclimber

    @topclimber: Old man who has been going downhill from his top forgot to add an important detail: even without DOJ policy, Hur would not charge Biden.

  48. 48.

    El Muneco

    @japa21: I only remember the month my Dad died because he started declining immediately after 9/11. I don’t remember what year my mom died without thinking carefully, and _that was in the 2010s_.

  50. 50.

    FunWWords

    @Alison Rose:

    i thought “I don’t recall” was like basic GFY do Ur own investigation/ not volunteering be punching bag BS opposition… Hillary & ivanka both couldn’t recall also too, unless I’m mistaken. Not sure if I’m making sense

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