As Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) grilled Robert Hur during Tuesday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, the Special Counsel stood his ground.
The hearing was convened to discuss Hur’s report on Joe Biden’s improper retention of classified documents.
However, the hearing abruptly escalated into a heated exchange when Hur made it clear his assessment was “necessary, accurate, and fair.”
Despite not recommending criminal charges against Biden, Hur’s comments gave a new dynamic to the investigation.
The exchange reached a boiling point when Schiff attempted to challenge Hur’s decision not to produce a public version of his report.
“I need to address something you said in your prior question. What you are suggesting is that I needed to provide a different version of my report that would be fit for public release,” Hur said.
“That is nowhere in the rules. I was to prepare a confidential report that was comprehensive and thorough of an expert,” Hur retorted.
Schiff countered:
“What is in the rules, Mr. Hur, is you don’t gratuitously do things to prejudice the subject of an investigation when you’re declining to prosecute.”
“You don’t gratuitously add language that you know will be useful in a political campaign,” Schiff argued,” he added.
Schiff accused Hur of making a “political choice” by including specific language in his report, suggesting it harmed Biden.
Watch
Throughout the hearing, Hur remained composed, denying any political motivation behind his report.
“Yes, Congressman, what you are suggesting is that I shape, sanitize, omit portions of my reasoning and explanation to the Attorney General for political reasons,” Hur insisted.
The same day, Hur also confirmed Biden was previously aware he had classified documents.
The explosive moment was captured when Hur and Congressman Tom McClintock (R-CA) discussed the president’s admission to a ghostwriter that he discovered the classified materials during a previous search of his basement.
That statement would contradict Biden’s earlier denial he shared unauthorized information with the ghostwriter.
Watch
“So you have audio recording from his ghostwriter where the president acknowledges that the information he has is classified and he’s sharing it with this ghostwriter?” McClintock asked.
“We have an audio recording capturing a statement from Mr. Biden saying to his ghostwriter in February of 2017, ‘I just found all the classified stuff downstairs.'”
Democrats on the committee claimed Biden complied with requests by the National Archives to return the classified materials.
Biden’s denials about unlawfully sharing classified information now threaten to tarnish his image as a law-abiding incumbent.
The transcript of Hur’s interview with Joe Biden was released Tuesday.
As we highlighted on Tuesday, the transcript showed the president made “car noises” before wandering off-topic about a man losing his penis and testicles.
Biden then began talking about cars before being interrupted by Hur who said, “Sir, I’d love — I would love to hear much more about this, but I do have a few more questions to get through.”
However, Biden ignored him and continued to ramble on about cars before Hur finally said, “All right. So let’s launch into the next subject, which relates to the Penn Biden Center.”
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