The Documents and the 'Elderly Man With a Poor Memory'
The thing is, the Biden misdeeds pale next to the Trump document misbehavior charged by special counsel Jack Smith. The Justice Department has charged the former president with willful retention of national defense secrets (at Mar-a-Lago), obstruction of justice and conspiracy. Trump has pleaded not guilty.
Also, Biden sat down for five hours of interviews and opened doors for investigators.
Trump has done neither. Yes, Trump has an absolute right not to incriminate himself, but he loses points in the court of public opinion.
Another bad look was evident when Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., berated Hur for his links to "known" members of the Federalist Society, a conservative and libertarian legal organization. And: "You are a Republican though, aren't you?"
"It is a measure of our times that prosecutors are now greeted with McCarthy like demands to know if they are or have been a member of the Federalist Society," George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley wrote on X.
Hur made this much clear: He did not exonerate Biden.
The report also acknowledged that the Afghanistan documents are 15 years old and the war is over.
And really, who would want an American president to be tried for behavior that many Americans suspect other former presidents practice? Ronald Reagan kept diaries, if back in an era of fewer scolds.
The bottom line is the report found that Biden kept classified material when he shouldn't have done so and he knew he shouldn't.
In February, Biden wrongly told reporters he did not share classified information -- "with my ghostwriter, I did not. Guarantee you. I did not."
According to the Hur report, Biden did share national security documents with his ghostwriter. Does he not know that or not remember?
Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X.
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