Former Special Counsel Robert Hur revealed that the White House tried to get him to change his report on President Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents.
Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Hur said that the White House wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradey Weinsheimer, who were supervising Hur’s investigation, asking them to make Hur ‘revise’ his report on Biden’s poor memory.
Today's cover: Special counsel Robert Hur confirms White House asked him to ‘revise’ descriptions of Biden memory lapseshttps://t.co/WW3IfHwV6E pic.twitter.com/TLyz4wgmBE
— New York Post (@nypost) March 13, 2024
“They did request certain edits and changes to the draft report,” Hur said to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) during the hearing.
White House counsel Richard Sauber and Biden’s personal lawyer Bob Bauer had written a letter to Garland and Weinshimer on Feb. 5, demanding that they “revisit your descriptions of President Biden’s memory and revise them so that they are stated in a manner that is within the bounds of your expertise and remit.”
Two days later, Sauber wrote another letter to Garland, accusing Hur of having further “violate[d] Department of Justice policy and practice by pejoratively characterizing uncharged conduct.”
However, the report was released the next day, on Feb. 8, revealing Hur’s conclusion that “Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
While Hur maintained that Biden’s lawyers and the White House counsel’s office can write to whoever they wish, the revelation that the administration tried to change Hur’s damning report on the president lays substance to claims about political interference in Department of Justice investigations and prosecutions, as the Special Counsel is meant to operate independently of political interference.
During his testimony on Tuesday, Hur also explained why his report included Biden’s memory lapses. According to him, that inclusion was “accurate” and “necessary” to “show my work.”
“I knew that for my decision to be credible, I could not simply announce that I recommended no criminal charges and leave it at that. I needed to explain why,” he explained.
