By Maureen Chowdhury, Shania Shelton, Antoinette Radford, Adrienne Vogt, Michelle Shen and Isabelle D'Antonio, CNN
From CNN's Michelle Shen
Special counsel Robert Hur disputed Rep. Matt Gaetz's characterization that all the elements necessary for a federal criminal violation were met, emphasizing that President Joe Biden's mishandling of classified documents lacked "intent."
In a response to Gaetz, a Florida Republican, Hur said:
"I need to disagree with at least one thing that you said, which is that I found that all of the elements were met. One of the elements of the relevant mishandling statute is the intent element."
From CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz
Rep. Jerry Nadler, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, asked special counsel Robert Hur whether someone could be "a little bit charged with a crime," saying people had taken Hur's report "out of context."
"Would you agree that there’s no such thing as being a little bit charged for a crime? You’re either charged or you’re not charged," Nadler asked.
"Yes, it is binary," Hur responded. "Either one is not charged or charged."
Hur did not recommend charges following his probe into President Joe Biden’s handling of classified material.
From CNN’s Marshall Cohen
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, repeatedly invoked conservative icon Ronald Reagan to defend President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents.
Former President Reagan also came up in special counsel Robert Hur’s report, which pointed out that Biden — like Reagan — believed his handwritten notes about classified matters were “personal” documents, as opposed to government-produced memos that contain clear classification markings and belong to the US government.
“It was widely known that President Reagan kept diaries from his presidency that included classified information. What I didn't know, and learned in your report, was that the Department of Justice, quote 'repeatedly described the diaries and public court filings as Mr. Reagan's personal records,' unquote, and that no agency ever attempted to remove his diaries," Lofgren said, quoting Hur’s report.
This is a big part of Biden’s defense and one of the reasons why Hur decided that it wasn’t appropriate to indict Biden for illegally mishandling the classified materials in his diaries.
Biden also invoked the Reagan comparison in his private two-day interview with Hur’s investigators in October, according to Hur’s report and the recently released transcript. Biden explained to Hur’s team that he didn’t think he was required to give his personal diaries to the National Archives after the Obama administration ended.
In his report, Hur said, “If this is what Mr. Biden thought, we believe he was mistaken about what the law permits, but this view finds some support in historical practice,” referring to the Reagan precedent.
From CNN's Michelle Shen
When questioning special counsel Robert Hur, House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan asked Hur why President Joe Biden broke the rules regarding classified documents.
"The conclusion as to exactly why the president did what he did is not one that we explicitly address in the report," Hur responded. "The report explains my decision to the attorney general that no criminal charges were warranted in this manner."
Jordan then went on to suggest that Biden's motive for breaking the law was to write a book, pointing to a note that Biden had met with a ghostwriter.
"He knew the rules. He broke them because he was writing a book," Jordan said.
From CNN’s Holmes Lybrand
Republicans and Democrats sparred during Tuesday’s hearing over whether the White House sought to hide anything in the report from special counsel Robert Hur on President Joe Biden’s handling of classified material.
During his remarks, Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin shot back at Republicans’ claim that the White House did not want Hur’s report released — contrasting Biden’s actions with those of former President Donald Trump.
"President Biden did not assert executive privilege or claim absolute immunity from presidential crimes," Raskin said. "He did not hide boxes of documents under his bed or in a bathtub. He did not fight investigators, nor did he seek to redact a single word of Mr. Hur’s report."
Republican Rep. James Comer claimed that while they had "little time" to review the transcripts" it is "clear" that the White House did not want Hur's report to be released.
While the White House did not seek to block the entire report, they did write to Attorney General Merrick Garland days before the report was released, objecting to certain aspects of the report, including "multiple denigrating statements" about the Biden’s memory in the report.
Ultimately, however, the report did make several references to Biden’s memory in explaining why, in part, charges were not brought.
From CNN’s Marshall Cohen
In their opening statements, both the top Republican and Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee overstated some of special counsel Robert Hur’s conclusions from his investigation into Joe Biden.
Rep. Jim Jordan, the Ohio Republican who chairs the panel, claimed that Hur determined that Biden “broke the law” and “unlawfully” held onto classified materials after the Obama administration ended.
“He had a fundamental question to address. Did Joe Biden unlawfully retain classified information? The answer is, yes, he did,” Jordan said, later adding:
“Joe Biden broke the law but because he's forgetful old man, who would appear sympathetic to a jury, Mr. Hur chose not to bring charges.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat, claimed Hur fully exonerated Biden’s conduct.
“President Biden acted responsibly cooperated completely and the decision… to decline criminal charges was relatively straightforward. In short, to borrow a phrase from the last administration, the Hur report represents the complete and total exoneration of President Biden,” Nadler said.
Facts First: Both Jordan and Nadler are stretching the truth about Hur’s conclusions.
It’s clear from Hur’s sweeping 388-page report that he did not completely exonerate the president, as Nadler claimed Tuesday. But the conclusions weren’t as damning and far-reaching as Jordan asserted.
Most importantly, Hur never said explicitly that Biden committed crimes, which Jordan suggested.
Hur found some evidence that Biden willfully retained classified materials after he left the Obama White House. He also uncovered some examples of Biden sharing classified information with his book author.
However, Hur also said his team found plenty of exculpatory evidence that led him to conclude that Biden’s actions weren’t illegal, and ultimately concluded that criminal charges weren’t warranted.
There were enough facts favorable to Biden that would “create reasonable doubt” for a potential jury, and “innocent explanations for the documents that we cannot refute,” Hur wrote in his report.
From CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz
House Democrats are pushing back against comparisons between President Joe Biden’s handling of classified material and the alleged conduct outlined in criminal charges against former President Donald Trump.
The similarities and differences between Robert Hur’s investigation and Jack Smith — including that Trump is facing criminal charges — have become a focus of fierce debate between allies of the two presidents.
“What America sees today is evidence of one president who believes in the rule of law and works to protect it, and one who has nothing but contempt for the rule of law and acts solely in pursuit of his own constantly multiplying corrupt schemes,” Rep. Jamie Raskin said Tuesday.
From CNN's Devan Cole
In dueling video presentations, Democrats and Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee aired videos of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump in an effort to showcase verbal gaffes and faulty memories – and their ages.
The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee aired a video montage of recent moments during which Trump misremembered key facts. Included in the mashup was a clip of the former president from last year in which he incorrectly said Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary, was the prime minister of Turkey.
Another video showed Trump, in a taped video deposition from 2022, apparently struggling to remember what years he was married to a former wife.
“That is a man who is incapable of avoiding criminal liability. A man who is wholly unfit for office and a man who, at the very least, ought to think twice before accusing others of cognitive decline,” said Rep. Jerry Nadler, the committee’s ranking Democrat.
Earlier in the hearing, House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan played a video of Biden responding to the Hur report and said it showed the president making statements that are "directly contradicted" by Hur's investigation.
The Biden video also showed him having a verbal slip-up in which he mistakenly referred to Egypt’s president as the president of Mexico.
From CNN's Lauren Fox and Kathryn Monahan
Rep. Jamie Raskin, a top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee who is sitting in on the hearing today, told CNN that Special counsel Robert Hur is not a memory expert and needs to focus on the facts of this case, which is that he did not recommend charges against President Joe Biden.
“My strategy is to simply quote Mr. Hur’s report, which begins with a one sentence exoneration of the president,” Raskin said.
Raskin added later that “Special counsel Hur was not named in order to investigate President Biden’s memory and I don’t understand him to be a memory specialist.”
Raskin said he like other Democrats will focus on the contrast today between Trump and Biden.
“Donald Trump tried to hide documents, tried to destroy documents, instructed his lawyer to conceal documents and Special counsel Hur was very clear in contrasting President Biden’s law-abiding behavior with Donald Trump’s reckless corruption and attempts to obstruct his investigation.”