US prosecutor Robert Hur stands by assessment of Biden’s ‘poor memory’
Al Jazeera
Hur testifies in a congressional committee hearing about Biden’s reported memory lapses, spurring bipartisan criticism.
Special Counsel Robert Hur has defended his assessment of President Joe Biden’s “poor memory”, as he gave testimony before members of the United States Congress on Tuesday.
Hur told the House Judiciary Committee that the evaluation was fundamental to his investigation into whether the president intentionally hoarded classified documents during his time out of office.
“My task was to determine whether the president retained or disclosed national defence information willfully — meaning knowingly and with the intent to do something the law forbids,” Hur told the committee. “For that reason, I had to consider the president’s memory and overall mental state.”
Questions about Biden’s memory arose after Hur released a special report in February that described the president fumbling to recall details, including dates surrounding his son Beau’s death.
In the report, Hur wrote that Biden, 81, would present to a jury “as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”. He did not recommend pressing charges.
