NEWSWEEK
Donald Trump has said Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report into President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents means he has a new excuse to get out of trouble in the future.
Hur concluded in a report released Thursday that criminal charges would not be warranted for the president after Obama-era papers were found at Biden’s private residence in Delaware and his former office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., in December 2022 and January 2023.
The inquiry was still highly critical of Biden, saying that the 81-year-old had significant issues with his memory while answering questions from investigators as part of the probe. Hur said that it would be hard to get a jury to bring forward a conviction beyond reasonable doubt against Biden after he left office because the president could present himself as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
The findings were immediately leapt upon by Trump, who has pleaded not guilty to 40 federal charges for allegedly retaining classified materials and then obstructing federal attempts to retrieve them. He has continually denied any wrongdoing.
Other GOP figures also said that Hur’s report is another example to suggest Biden’s cognitive abilities render him unfit to run for a second term at the White House. There is no evidence that the president is suffering from any serious health issues. Newsweek contacted the White House on Saturday for comment via email.
