Special counsel Robert Hur said that he investigated whether or not money and pride may have played a role in the alleged collection of classified material by President Joe Biden. Hur faced significant backlash over his report from congressional Democrats, who disagreed with the report.
Hur said that he found evidence that Biden may have collected classified material due to reasons of “pride and money.” Hur described the potential motivation as “strong.” Hur cited Biden’s memoir that he published which brought him $8 million.
The special counsel received questions from both sides of the aisle during his testimony Tuesday. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) asked why Biden “willfully” retained the material.
“He knew the law. Been in office like 50 years, five decades in the United States Senate; chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee; eight years as vice president; he got briefed every day as vice president; he’s been in the Situation Room,” said Jordan. “In fact you know he knew the rules because you said so on page 226.”
The character assassination of Robert Hur performed by Democrats and echoed by some media outlets stands in stark contrast to the Biden transcript released today. It’s hard to read the Axios story from Alex Thompson without questioning the integrity and competency of House… pic.twitter.com/XGGeigbxeF
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) March 13, 2024
Hur said that Jordan’s conclusion was “not one that we explicitly address in the report.”
Jordan cited the fact that the president started meeting with a ghostwriter for his memoirs while he was vice president. Jordan asserted that Biden “broke” the rules “because he was writing a book.”
When asked about the $8 million Biden made from the memoir, Hur said “That language does appear in the report. And we did identify evidence supporting those assessments.”
Hur wrote in his report that Biden risked “serious damage” to the nation’s national security. The special counsel further said that Biden’s ghostwriter kept audio recordings from his meetings with Biden.
These recordings included information that Biden allegedly read from classified records. The ghostwriter allegedly attempted to delete the files after finding out that Hur was investigating the classified material.
Jordan said that there was evidence that the ghostwriter “destroys the evidence.”
“That’s the key takeaway in my mind,” said Jordan.
