By Steve Neavling
Lawyers for the White House and President Biden vehemently objected to the special counsel report on the president’s memory in letters to the Justice Department.
Biden’s top attorneys argued that special counsel Robert K. Hur’s comments “openly, obviously, and blatantly violate Department policy and practice,” according to letters obtained by The Washington Post.
The letters were sent days before the report was released.
The 388-page report, which recommended no criminal charges against Biden for his handling of classified documents, caused political damage when it claimed the president was a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
In the letter, Biden’s legal team argued that Hur should not have publicly released the report because no charges were filed. Instead, the president’s lawyers claimed, the special counsel should have sent a confidential report to the attorney general outlining the reasons for his decision.
But Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer disagreed, saying he supports the document’s wording.
“The identified language is neither gratuitous nor unduly prejudicial because it is not offered to criticize or demean the President,” Weinsheimer wrote to Biden’s legal team. “Rather, it is offered to explain Special Counsel Hur’s conclusions about the President’s state of mind in possessing and retaining classified information.”
In the letter, Biden’s attorneys argued that the special counsel’s report was similar to what then-FBI Director James Comey did in 2016, when he denounced Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton while announcing she would not be charged.
“Mr. Hur’s criticism of President Biden mirrors one of the most widely recognized examples in recent history of inappropriate prosecutor criticism of uncharged conduct,” Biden’s lawyers wrote. “The FBI and DOJ personnel’s criticism of uncharged conduct during investigations in connection with the 2016 election was found to violate ‘long-standing Department practice and protocol.’”
