Special Counsel Hur's Report

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Robert K Hur, Report on the Investigation Into Unauthorized Removal, Retention, and Disclosure of Classified Documents Discovered at Locations Including the Penn Biden Center and the Delaware Private Residence of President Joseph R Biden, Jr. (which was submitted by Hur to attorney general on Monday, Feb 5, 2024 and attorney general released it to the public on Thursday, Feb 8, 2024)
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.justice.gov/storage/report-from-special-counsel-robert-k-hur-february-2024.pdf

Quote (Table of Contents is on page i, right before page 1 (where Executive Summary begins); all footnotes omitted):

(a) in the section of "Executive Summary"):

p 5: "In addition, Mr Biden's memory was significantly limited, both during his recorded interviews with the ghostwriter in 2017, and in his interview with our office in 2023. And his cooperation with our investigation, including by reporting to the government that the Afghanistan documents were in his Delaware garage, will likely convince some jurors that he made an innocent mistake, rather than acting willfully-that is, with intent to break the law-as the statute requires.

p 6: "We have also considered 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. Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. 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.

(b) pp 207-208 (in "Chapter Eleven: Analysis of the Evidence-- Classified Afghanistan Documents"): "Mr Biden's memory also appeared to have significant limitations-both at the time he spoke to Zwonitzer in 2017, as evidenced by their recorded conversations, and today, as evidenced by his recorded interview with our office. Mr Biden's recorded conversations with Zwonitzer from 2017 are often painfully slow, with Mr Biden struggling to remember events and straining at times to read and relay his own notebook entries.

"In his interview with our office [in 2023], Mr Biden's memory was worse. He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview [with special counsel] when his term ended ('if it was 2013 -when did I stop being Vice President?'), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began ('in 2009, am I still Vice President?'). He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died. And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him. Among other things, he mistakenly said he 'had a real difference' of opinion with General Karl Eikenberry, when, in fact, Eikenberry was an ally whom Mr Biden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to President Obama.

"In a case where the government must prove that Mr Biden knew he had possession of the classified Afghanistan documents after the vice presidency and chose to keep those documents, knowing he was violating the law, we expect that at trial, his attorneys would emphasize these limitations in his recall.

"We also expect many jurors to be struck by the place where the Afghanistan documents were ultimately found in Mr Biden's Delaware home: in a badly damaged box in the garage, near a collapsed dog crate, a dog bed, a Zappos box, an empty bucket, a broken lamp wrapped with duct tape, potting soil, and synthetic firewood. [a photo attached]

(c) pp 219-220 (near the end of Chapter Eleven): "Third, as discussed to some extent above, Mr Biden will likely present himself to the jury, as he did during his interview with our office, as a sympathetic, well meaning, elderly man with a poor memory. While he is and must be accountable for his actions-he is, after all, the President of the United States-based on our direct observations of him, Mr Biden is someone for whom many jurors will want to search for reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury they should convict him by then a former president who will be at least well into his eighties-of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.

(d) pp 247-248 (in "Chapter Twelve: Analysis of the Evidence -- Classified Notebooks"): "Mr Biden's decision to read notes nearly verbatim to Zwonitzer that Mr Bden had just identified as potentially classified cannot be justified. But the evidence does not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he intended to share classified information. Mr Biden told Zwonitzer he was 'not sure' the notebook passage he read was classified. That is enough to create reasonable doubt about whether Mr Biden acted willfully.

"There 1s also evidence that Mr Biden took some steps to avoid sharing classified information with Zwonitzer. As explained in Chapter Five, Mr Biden sometimes skipped over notebook passages to avoid reading classified information. And if called as a witness at trial, Zwonitzer would testify that Mr Biden mentioned the need to be careful 'because he was warned that there was a possibility that * * * some of this stuff [handwritten entries in the notebooks] could be classified,' and, 'there were things he couldn't tell me, lines he couldn't cross.'" (insertion original]

"Given the intelligence and military officials present and the topics discussed at the meetings Mr Biden recounted for Zwonitzer, Mr Biden should have realized that his notes did or were likely to contain classified information. But taken as a whole, the evidence will likely leave jurors with reasonable doubts about whether Mr Biden knew he was sharing classified information with Zwonitzer and intended to do so. For these jurors, Mr Biden's apparent lapses and failures in February and April 2017 will likely appear consistent with the diminished faculties and faulty memory he showed in Zwonitzer's interview recordings and in our interview of him. Therefore, we conclude that the evidence does not establish that Mr Biden willfully disclosed national defense information to Zwonitzer.


Note:
(a)
(i) One may search the report with magnifying lens at the upper right corner.
(ii) Page number of the report is displayed at the bottom of the page.
(b)
(i) Robert K Hur
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_K._Hur
(1973- ; full baneL Robert Kyoung Hur)
(ii) For his surname, see Heo  許
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heo
("is also often spelled as Hur or Huh, or less commonly as Her")
(c)
(i) ghostwriter:
Mark Zwonitzer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Zwonitzer
(1962- ; "Zwonitzer also worked with Joe Biden on his two memoirs, the 2007 Promises to Keep [in preparation for 2008 run for Democratic nominee for president] and the 2017 Promise Me, Dad [as a memoir]")
(ii) Karl Eikenberry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Eikenberry
("served as the US Ambassador to Afghanistan from April 2009 to July 2011")
(d) News media's accounts of President Biden's diminished faculties are copied from the report, which does not provide more information.