Hur tells us what we already know about Biden and his storage of classified documents
Hur, who was the special counsel investigating Biden’s handling of classified documents, has been testifying before the House Judiciary Committee today:
“You exonerated him,” Jayapal said.
“I did not exonerate him,” Hur shot back. “That word does not appear in the report, Congresswoman.” …
Ex-Special Counsel Robert Hur testified Tuesday that President Biden “willfully retained classified materials,” but said he “had to consider” the president’s “memory and overall mental state” when determining whether to bring charges against him. …
“This evidence included an audiorecorded conversation during which Mr. Biden told his ghostwriter that he had ‘just found all the classified stuff downstairs.’ When Mr. Biden said this, he was a private citizen speaking to his ghostwriter in his private rental home in Virginia,” Hur continued. “We also identified other recorded conversations during which Mr. Biden read classified information aloud to his ghostwriter.”
A transcript of Hur’s interview with Biden was released and can be found here. I haven’t read it, but there are many articles containing highlights (see this, this, and this, for example).
As far as I can tell, none of this will change many, or even any, minds.
From Jonathan Turley:
The transcripts are now released. President Biden claimed no knowledge of any of the classified documents in his home and open in his garage. That is 40 years of memory lapse in the face of open violations of federal law…
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) March 12, 2024
ADDENDUM: More here about what the interview transcript reveals about Biden’s memory.
My conclusion is that while it’s certainly true that Biden is currently senile, I don’t believe that he was particullarly senile when he originally took and kept these various documents (which was years ago in many cases).
In fact, I’m willing to bet that it’s not just Biden (or Trump) who has kept classified information in ways that are incorrect and illegal. I strongly suspect that there’s been loads of senators, congress critters, ex-presidents and vice presidents, presidential cabinet members, and various government employees who have taken home troves of classified documents and handled and stored them incorrectly over the years and decades. But of course nobody really cared too much about all that until it was believed that they could get Trump over it.
For the Democratic Party (and its enthusiastic supporters), Memory Lapse(TM) is a feature—and a TOOL, to be used tactically, strategically, and, with great pride, WHENEVER necessary—and NOT a bug…Cf. Comey, Fauci, and all those other goofy sharpshooters.
The Know-Nothing Party revisited? (Or maybe just “Idunno”, Inc…)
Since when is being senile stop being charged. Maybe not a trial but at least charged.
And the Ghostwriter needs to be charged.
Double tiered justice in this country is pulling it apart. I am fearful of where with WILL lead.
SHIREHOME (2:12 pm) said: “Since when is being senile stop being charged.”
Since FBI Director James Comey graciously let Mz. Hillary off the hook in 2016.
“I did not exonerate him…”
That’s pretty funny!
Once again our immature media, politicians and society focus on the wrong thing.
This and Trump’s similar indictment are not indications of wrong doing by Biden and Trump; they are glaring examples of our idiotic document secrecy laws.
It’s our freakin’ government. Government of the people for the people by the people. Very little should be classified and what is classified should go through several echelons of independent approval. We just learned business leaders signed NDAs with California’s state government to collaborate on legislation. That’s insane! Except for extremely sensitive and easily demonstrable military secrets no government communications should be classified, hidden nor secret.
They are meeting in rooms we pay for typing on computers we pay for printing on printers we pay for. All of this belongs to “we the people.”
We don’t need more restrictions on handling of classified documents.
We need fewer.
My take: Guilty as H*ll but free as a bird…..because he’s a well-meaning old man with a faulty memory. 🙁
My queston to Hur would have been: “Don’t you think it’s a bit presumptive to pre-judge what a jury would conclude in this case? Why not bring the charges and see what an actual jury does?”
And – “Did it ever occur to you that Biden might be using memory loss as a strategy to fool you? Are you medically qualified to diagnose dementia?”
And – “Did you know that your description of Biden’s memory loss would medically qualify him for evaluation of his ability to care for himself? Since you are an attorney, would you not refer the accused to a medical doctor for further evaluation?”
And – “Does It concern you that someone can commit the crime of mishandling classified documents over a forty-year period, and go Scot free? If not, why not?”
I yield back to the chair.
https://twitter.com/julie_kelly2/status/1767613227112792100
The takeaway is that if you’re Republican, like Trump or Petraeus, the laws on classified information apply to you. If you’re a prominent Democrat, they don’t.
Actually petraeus got a pass no jail
Jayapal is the face at the core of the Democrat Party. It’s hard to forget, or to recover from the trauma of seeing it.
So the law doesnt matter in point of fact, nearly every journalist is hot garbage except maybe a dozen or two like those af the tablet the federalist
They will let you be killed and tell you why its a good thing that is evil message discipline
Miguel @4:03 PM, Mr. Smith points out that many of the documents illegally in possession of Biden were almost 15 years old whereas those that Trump possessed were more recent, and proposes that that makes Trump guilty and Biden innocent. The problem is that Biden’s documents were fresh when he stole them so the theft was indeed serious. I use the term theft in Biden’s case because at the time he took the documents home he was in no way authorized to possess them.
of course, that is a squirrel move, the fact is biden does not have a right to any of those documents, trump does, so if the law is to mean anything, the chain of custody is extremely lax, why no charges for katie chung or zwonitzer or that other lawyer, name escapes me, that had recently left the white house counsels office,
My queston to Hur would have been: “Don’t you think it’s a bit presumptive to pre-judge what a jury would conclude in this case? Why not bring the charges and see what an actual jury does?” …
J.J.:
My thoughts too.
Though Dems and Power are as Occam is to Razor. Inseparable.
And the—nuanced—view of this whole Dingaling Brothers circus from one of America’s two Papers of Record:
“Dems turn Biden-documents hearing into 3 Stooges theater”—
https://nypost.com/2024/03/12/opinion/dems-turn-biden-documents-hearing-into-3-stooges-theater/
The living horror of Jayapal.
Pingback:Links and Comments | Rockport Conservatives