SAUNDERS: First the Special Counsel report. Then the hearing.
WASHINGTON — “Why did he do it?” House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan asked about President Joe Biden’s decision to hang onto classified documents in his garage, Delaware Penn Biden Center office and home office — rather than a secure facility.
In the hot seat Tuesday was Robert Hur, until recently the special counsel whose investigation of Biden’s mishandling of classified information ended with the decision not to charge Biden criminally.
As his report noted, Hur did not say Biden did nothing wrong. But he believed a jury likely would not convict a former president who could be seen as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
File that under Damning with Faint Praise.
Back to Jordan’s question. The GOP firebrand offered his own answer as to motive — “the oldest motives in the book, pride and money.”
On the money front, Jordan was referring to the $8 million advance paid to Biden for his second book. In the process, Biden opened up to his ghostwriter.
It is the pride element that interests me today. The then vice president saved classified information that he believed bolstered his disagreement with President Barack Obama’s decision to send additional troops to Afghanistan in 2009.
Biden especially did not want to surrender handwritten notes — which he no doubt believed would make him look better than Obama on “Afghanastan,” which Biden frequently misspelled.
My read: Biden knew what he was doing, but he couldn’t help himself. Ego.
Some Republicans argue there is a double standard. Biden has not been charged with document violations even as former President Donald Trump has been.
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.