Special counsel Robert Hur’s report on President Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified information has reignited controversy over special counsels and their investigative reports, which are designed to publicly disclose findings – including negative ones – even if prosecutors decline to bring charges.
Attorney General Merrick Garland received Hur’s final report on Monday, according to the Justice Department, and immediately was confronted with how to handle the harsh assessment of the president’s conduct, including language saying that a jury could see him as an “elderly man with a poor memory.”
Garland and other top Justice Department officials had the option to try to remove some of the characterizations in Hur’s report that the White House says were gratuitous and false.
But the repercussions of doing so are clear: Garland would have to report to Congress the information he was removing, which would immediately undermine the independence of the investigation and fuel more allegations of partisanship.
The information removed would likely eventually become public anyway, Justice Department officials say.
The closing of the investigation will soon also present the Justice Department and the White House a new decision on what to do about any audio recordings of the president’s interview last October with Hur, his 2017 discussions with his ghost writer and other materials from the investigation. The special counsel’s office recorded its interview with Biden, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
The special counsel’s report released on Thursday immediately fueled attacks on the president about his age, a sore subject for Biden that was already one his biggest challenges with voters as he faces a potential reelection rematch against former…
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