Joe Biden : “Special Counsel’s Report on Biden & Classified Documents: 5 Key Findings”

WASHINGTON — The recently released report by Special Counsel Robert Hur provides new insights into why politicians often retain sensitive information after leaving office. The nearly 400-page report also sheds light on President Joe Biden’s decision to share private information with a ghostwriter, a common practice among high-profile individuals seeking to publish books without writing them.

The extensive report, which can be accessed here, comprises an executive summary, 17 chapters, a conclusion, and three appendices, totaling 388 pages. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Hur as the special counsel in January 2023. Former President Donald Trump had previously appointed Hur to lead the prosecutor’s office in Maryland in 2018. Hur left the office in 2021 to join the Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher law firm.

The report does not recommend any criminal charges against President Biden. However, it contains several noteworthy details that have garnered significant attention. Here are five key points from the report:

Biden’s Memory and ‘Superfluous’ Commentary

According to the Hur report, one of the reasons prosecutors did not pursue charges against Biden was their belief that he would present himself to a jury, as he did during the interview, as an elderly man with a poor memory but good intentions. The report reveals that during the special counsel’s interview, Biden claimed not to remember his time as vice president and even the date of his son Beau’s death, which occurred within the past several years. The report also notes that Biden’s recollection of important events, such as the Afghanistan debate, appeared hazy.

President Biden strongly objected to the report’s assertion about his memory during a press conference, stating, “There’s even a reference that I don’t remember when my son died. How in the hell dare he raise that. Frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself it wasn’t any of their damn business.”

Biden’s legal team, including Special Counsel to the President Richard Sauber and Bob Bauer, his personal counsel, vehemently rejected the characterization of Biden’s memory loss in a letter to the special counsel. They argued that the report’s treatment of Biden’s memory was inaccurate and inappropriate, emphasizing that memory loss regarding events that occurred years ago is a common occurrence.

Precedent Set by Reagan

The report highlights that Biden is not the first former executive branch official to retain classified or sensitive materials after leaving office, instead of transferring them to the National Archives. It points to former President Ronald Reagan as the clearest example. According to the report, Reagan left the White House with eight years’ worth of handwritten diaries containing Top Secret information, which he kept at his California home.

The report further reveals that the Department of Justice did not investigate Reagan for mishandling classified information or attempt to retrieve or secure his diaries. Biden referenced Reagan’s diaries during his interviews with the special counsel, arguing that previous presidents had also kept classified materials after leaving office.

Conversations with Biden’s Ghostwriter

The report extensively discusses Biden’s use of a ghostwriter and the information he shared with them. It reveals that Biden wrote down sensitive information from intelligence briefings with President Obama and discussions in the White House Situation Room on matters of national security, military, and foreign policy. The report also notes that Biden occasionally skipped over presumptively classified material while reading his notebook entries aloud to the ghostwriter, warning them about the potentially classified content. However, on at least three occasions, Biden read classified entries verbatim to the ghostwriter.

The report highlights the risks posed to national security by the practice of retaining classified material in unsecured locations and reading it to a ghostwriter. It emphasizes that criminal charges are not the appropriate remedy in this case, but it acknowledges the serious concerns regarding the vulnerability of sensitive information to loss or compromise by adversaries.

Deleted and Partially Recovered Evidence

The report reveals that the ghostwriter, identified as Mark Zwonitzer, deleted recordings of conversations with Biden after learning about the appointment of a special counsel for the case. However, upon disclosing his actions to the Special Counsel’s Office, the ghostwriter handed over his computer and external hard drive, consenting to a search. The FBI’s analysis suggests that all the deleted audio files related to the memoir were recovered, although some portions are missing, which can occur during the process of forensic file recovery.

The report acknowledges that the ghostwriter did not delete near-verbatim transcripts of the recordings and willingly shared them with investigators. The ghostwriter provided plausible explanations for deleting the recordings, claiming innocent intent and demonstrating cooperation by producing his notes and devices for examination.

Documents Found in Unusual Locations

Appendix A of the report details the documents found in Biden’s office or home, along with their classification levels. The recovered items include a top secret document discussing Russian aggression towards Ukraine, a 2009 document from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence about the war in Afghanistan, numerous unidentified members’ biographies from a foreign delegation, and Power Point slides outlining options for the distribution and composition of U.S. forces in Afghanistan after 2014.

According to the report, documents related to Afghanistan were discovered in Biden’s Delaware home, specifically in a damaged box in the garage, near various unrelated items such as 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. The report suggests that this storage location does not align with intentional preservation of important classified documents, instead implying forgetfulness or unawareness on Biden’s part.