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| EFE |
The special prosecutor who investigated Joe Biden's handling of classified documents during his tenure as Vice President of the United States, Robert Hur, justified the decision to include comments about the current U.S. president's memory in his report.
Hur pointed out in the statement that he will read this Tuesday before a committee of the House of Representatives of Congress, and which was obtained by U.S. media, that it was necessary not only to reach a conclusion about the president's actions, but also to explain the reason for his decision.
In his report of February 8, Hur exonerated Biden, 81, for the retention of classified documents, but added that the politician demonstrated having "a significantly limited memory", a comment that was criticized by the President of the United States.
"I knew that for my decision to be credible, I could not simply announce that I recommended that no charges be filed and leave it at that. I needed to explain why," Hur states in his statement delivered before this morning's hearing in the Congressional Judiciary Committee.
The special prosecutor added that both "the evidence and the president himself put his memory at the center" of the investigation and that his assessment in the report on the relevance of the president's memory "was necessary, accurate, and fair".
"And what is most important, what I wrote is what I believe the evidence shows, and what I hope the jury would perceive and believe. I did not dilute my explanation. And I did not unfairly disqualify the president. I explained to the attorney general my decision and the reasons," he explained.
The Department of Justice began investigating Biden since at the end of 2022, twenty classified documents from the time he was vice president of Barack Obama (2009-2017) were found in his Delaware home, and in a private office.
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The fruit of that investigation is a 400-page report written by Hur, who had been appointed special prosecutor of the case by the U.S. Attorney General, Merrick Garland.
The report indicates that Biden demonstrated "a significantly limited memory" in the interrogations and that his condition in 2023 had worsened compared to recordings that were had from 2017, as, for example, he did not remember the dates in which he served as vice president.
"He didn't even remember when his son Beau died," who died of cancer in 2015, the prosecutor explained. In response to Hur's report, Biden stated that his memory is fine.
"I have good intentions, and I am an older man, and I know what the hell I'm doing," Biden declared on February 8 when asked for his reaction to Hur's conclusions.