The US Department of Justice has found evidence that President Joe Biden willfully retained classified materials pertaining to military, intelligence, and national security matters after having served as vice president under Barack Obama, but has declined to prosecute, according to a report released Thursday.
Our investigation uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen. These materials included (1) marked classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, and (2) notebooks containing Mr. Biden’s handwritten entries about issues of national security and foreign policy implicating sensitive intelligence sources and methods. FBI agents recovered these materials from the garage, offices, and basement den in Mr. Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware home.
Under the leadership of Special Counsel Robert K. Hur, the team concluded prosecution would be inappropriate due to the fact that the evidence failed to establish the president’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
In addition, the report reasoned that if he were to stand before a jury, Biden would “likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
White House lawyer Rick Sauber said in a statement that the Biden administration is “pleased” with the decision not to prosecute, but, “We disagree with a number of inaccurate and inappropriate comments in the Special Counsel’s report. Nonetheless, the most important decision the Special Counsel made—that no charges are warranted—is firmly based on the facts and evidence.” President Joe Biden also said:
This was an exhaustive investigation going back more than 40 years, even into the 1970s when I was a young Senator. I cooperated completely, threw up no roadblocks, and sought no delays. In fact, I was so determined to give the Special Counsel what they needed that I went forward with five hours of in-person interviews over two days on October 8th and 9th of last year, even though Israel had just been attacked on October 7th and I was in the middle of handling an international crisis. I just believed that’s what I owed the American people so they could know no charges would be brought and the matter closed.
Meanwhile, former president Donald Trump, who is being prosecuted for unauthorized retention of classified documents, among other things, released a statement saying:
THIS HAS NOW PROVEN TO BE A TWO-TIERED SYSTEM OF JUSTICE AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL SELECTIVE PROSECUTION! The Biden Documents Case is 100 times different and more severe than mine. I did nothing wrong, and I cooperated far more. What Biden did is outrageously criminal – He had 50 years of documents, 50 times more than I had, and “WILLFULLY RETAINED” them. I was covered by the Presidential Records Act, Secret Service was always around, and GSA delivered the documents. Deranged Jack Smith should drop this Case immidiately. ELECTION INTERFERANCE.
