State of new york for defrauding state through his taxes. And he has been judged a rapist. You want to be perceived as credible. So i want to first see if you will pledge to not accept an appointment from donald trump if he is elected again as president. Congressman, im not here to seems like an easy answer considering what i laid out. Im here to talk about the report and the work that went into it. You dont want to be associated with that guy again, do you . Im not here to offer opinions. Im here to talk about the work that went into the report. There were no limits on you as to what you could charge President Biden by the Attorney General, is that right . The decisions that i made that are reflected in the report are my own. You did not bring any charges, is that correct . Correct. There were no limits on john durham and his investigation of the prior administration, when he was Special Counsel, is that right . I dont believe i have the information required to answer the question about the durham investigation. He sat in the same chair you are sitting in. He told us he investigated President Biden and president obama and did not bring charges. President biden sat for an interview with you for over two days for ten hours . A little over five hours. Over two days . Correct. Thats in sharp contrast to a guy who did not sit for an interview when the Mueller Investigation took place. That was donald trump. Did not sit for an interview when he was impeached in this Committee Room by the judicialry committee. Did not sit for an interview when the second impeachment occurred and he was invited to sit for an interview for his role in january 6. Did not sit for an interview in the january 6 classified in the january 6 case or the classified documents case. The chairman has not sat for and interview in his own subpoena. Joe biden has. I want to turn you to the transcript and day one, page 47. You said to President Biden, you have appear to have a photographic understanding and recall of the house. Did you say that to President Biden . Those words do appear on page 47 of the transcript. Photographic is what you said. Is that right . That word does appear on page 47 of the transcript. Never appeared in your report though. Is that correct . The word photographic. That does not appear in my report. I want to show you and play a video of what is absolutely not photographic. In the failing New York Times by an anonymous really an Gutless Coward we heard saudi arabia and russia will i hope they go and take a look at the oranges the oranges of the investigation. I watch our police and our firemen down in seven11 at the world trade center. We won an election with obama. This is the very definition of total let me begin by wishing you a beautiful do you remember this got bless the unit the windmills with driving them crazy. They are driving they are driving a little batty. I went to puerto rico and the met with the president of the the gentleman yields back. The chair recognizes the gentleman from north carolina. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Hur, im down here. I think today the Justice Department released the transcripts of the interviews with President Biden. Are you aware of that . I understand that to be true, yes. Did you have any involvement in the decision or the timing of the release of the transcripts . No. Did you make any recommendation about the release of the transcripts or being done or not . I did not. That was above my pay grade. I dont know why they have been released so close to the hearing. It impacts our ability to ask you questions. Theres one point just as an illustration, you describe, i think, the afghan pact in 2009, i think is the information. You say, if one reason not to prosecute mr. Biden, in addition, mr. Biden told us in his interview he does not recognize the marking confidential as a Classification Marking. To him, the marking means the document should be held in confidence but not necessarily that it is classified. The footnote is a reference and it refers to the biden transcript at 24 and 25. We have that now. We havent until this morning. I just want to read from that exchange. This is on page 24, line 15. This is a typewritten document. It has a confidential what appears to be a stamp at the top. The top of the document indicates its from the American Embassy kabul. Its dated november 09. The only question i have about this is the confidential marking. Do you recognize that to be a Classification Marking . President biden, no. I mean, confidential doesnt want to get around. Its not in a category i dont think of code word top secret, that kind of thing. But i dont even know where it came from. Are you familiar with confidential as a level of Classified Information . President biden, well, if i got a document confidential, it would mean no one could see it but me or the people working on this issue. Are you aware that among certain categories of Classified Information, there is top secret, secret, and theres also a category of Classified Information called confidential . Is that something that you are aware of or not . President biden, i yes. I was aware of it. I dont ever remember when i got any document that was confidential that was meant for me to read and or discuss with the people who sent me the memo so then it trails off. As i read that those answers, they are equivocal. He at first says he doesnt do you recognize that to be a Classification Marking . He said no and goes on to explain. Then, are you aware that among certain categories of Classified Information theres also a category of Classified Information called confidential . He says, yes, i was aware of it. Mr. Hur, there seems to be a discrepancy between the conclusion in the report or the summary of the evidence in the report and what the transcript says. Can you offer any guidance to this committee why you would put that summary in your report as opposed to saying that he gave inconsistent answers or why didnt you nail down in the transcript which was the right answer . He is giving answers that says no and then he says yes. Why didnt you pursue it until you knew . The report reflects our best efforts to summarize and characterize the evidence in the investigation, including the investigation received from the president himself during our interview of him. As you point out, the transcripts of the president s interviews over two days are available for inspection. Members are able to draw their own conclusions based on the transcripts that are now available. I appreciate your answer. I certainly think you can come up with some details that someone can disagree on and it has the quality i know of some cherry picking, because i found something. We have only had a little bit of time to look. I dont think it serves this process well for the Justice Department to dump these transcripts into the public right now. They should have been released at a proper time. I think i will leave it at that. Mr. Chairman, i yield back. The gentleman yield . I will yield. Quick, mr. Hur, someone said something about changing the facts. You said, im not going to change the facts. Lets change the subject. The same facts and the individual that you were investigating was 65 and had a good memory, do you reach the same conclusion . Congressman, as i responded earlier to a question along these lines, i am not here to entertain hypotheticals about facts or circumstances that may be different. What i did was assess the evidence and facts that i obtained in this investigation and make a judgment based on this evidence. The chair recognizes the gentle lady from washington. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your work. In your investigation, you reviewed more than 7 million douments and conducted interviews of 147 interviews. Your investigation cost several Million Dollars and resulted in a 345page report with several dozen pages of appendixes . Is it correct that your investigation concluded with an assessment that, quote, no criminal charges are warranted in this matter . Correct. This lengthy, expensive and independent investigation resulted in a complete exoneration of president joe biden. For every document you discussed in your report, you found insufficient evidence the president violated laws about possession or retention of classified materials. The law that you analyzed for Potential Prosecution was part of the Espionage Act which criminalize willful retention or disclosure of National Defense information, is that correct . Congressman, thats one statute we analyzed. I need to go back and make sure that i take note of the word that you used, exoneration. Im going to continue with my questions. Im going to continue with my questions. I know that the term i know that the term the likely outcome you exonerated him. I know the term mr. Hur, its my time. Thank you. I know the term willful retention has a particular legal meaning. I want to make sure that is absolutely clear to the American People before we go any further. As you wrote in your report, to prove as a matter of law the president , quote, willfully retained documents, first that he knowingly retained or disclosed National Defense information and he knew it was unlawful, is that correct . Thats correct. To be very, very im sorry, it was National Defense information, thats an important third element. To be very clear, you did not find sufficient evidence to prove either of those elements Beyond A Reasonable Doubt to show that mr. Biden willfully retained any of the classified National Defense materials recovered during your investigation, correct . My conclusion was that the admission able one set of documents was discovered by investigations in the president s Delaware Home. His staff assembled those in 2014 to prepare him for an event with charlie rose. Some of the documents were marked classified. You reviewed all of the facts surrounding the documents in those bindings and you determined this is a quote from your report these facts do not support a conclusion that mr. Biden willfully retained the marked classified documents . That does appear in the report. You reviewed another set from the president s home related to the afghanistan troop surge in 2009. You evaluated whether the president willfully retained such documents in his Delaware Home or a home he rented in virginia in 2017. In your report you said there was a shortage of evidence for any wrongdoing and other innocent explanations for the documents that we cannot refute. Are those quotes correct . Congresswoman, if you have page cites, i would be happy to confirm. Page 6. Its right up on the screen. With respect to the two quotes on the screen, in addition to the shortage of evidence there are other innocent explanations for the documents we cannot refute, and we conclude the evidence is not sufficient to convict i was going to get to that. You concluded that the evidence is not sufficient to convict and we decline to recommend prosecution, those are your words . Those words appear in the report. President bidens counsel discovered documents at the Penn Biden Center and turned those over to the fbi. You determined that you could not, in fact, prove that President Biden willfully retained those documents because the evidence suggests the marked classified documents were sent and kept there by mistake. We decline any criminal charges related to those documents. Correct . The language we decline any criminal charges related to those documents does appear at page 311 of the report. Thank you. You reached a similar conclusion regarding the documents found in President Bidens Senate Papers at the University Of Delaware. For these reasons, its likely that the few classified documents found in mr. Bidens Senate Papers at the University Of Delaware were there by mistake, correct . That language does appear, page 325 of the report. It seems to me the crux of the report, the main story is that you found insufficient evidence to prove Beyond A Reasonable Doubt that President Biden willfully retained any classified materials. That is the story of this report. I yield back, mr. Chairman. The gentle lady from indiana is recognized. Thank you. I thank you, Special Counsel, for being here in these challenging times. I want to tell you a few things interesting for me. You could see that theres you see there was willful detention of the documents. When you talk about sympathetic, well meaning, older man with poor elderly man with poor memory, it seems like every attorney would advise you to be sympathetic and well meaning. It seems like the fbi needs to do check on amnesia. Because everyone says doesnt recall. It might have been more in his recollection than typical i dont recall because is there something more than that than i dont recall something for you to actually decide . It seems this is the core of the whole investigation why you didnt pursue further the charges. Congresswoman, my judgment as to how a jury would likely perceive evidence related to the evidence, it was based on a number of different sources from documents, including various recordings, some from the 2016 2017 time frame, some from the interview of the president in october of 2023. I think what you are asking about specifically is how the president presented himself during his interview in october of last year. Of course, i did take into account not just the words from the cold record of the transcript, but the entire manner in living color, in real time of how the president presented himself during his interview. Hopefully, he didnt outsmart you and all of us. I want to comment on something mr. Raskin mentioned about us not remembering communism. I have a very good recollection what it is. Unfortunately, zion is on the rise. They have been emboldened by president obama, now by President Biden. Unfortunately, our government and department of justice is really resembleresembles. Its sad to see that. Its a double standard what we have. I will yield to chairman jordan. Thank you. Mr. Hur, during your investigation, did you have communication with the white house and white House Counsel . Yes. I got five letters that they communicated with you regarding your investigation . We received a number of letters. As well as the president s personal counsel. Right. Did the white house get the report before the report was made public . We did provide a draft of the report to the white House Counsels office for review. I understand. Did the white house then once they got the report before it went public, did the white house weigh in with your investigation on elements of that report and get the report changed . They did request certain edits and changes. Yes. I see that in the february 5th letter. Did they only correspond with you . Im sorry, are you asking if they corresponded with anyone else on my team . Once you gave the report to the white house, they sought changes. I have one letter here thats addressed to you on february 5th. They said, we are placed that after more of your investigations they respond to the report. They ask they disagree they ask for you to change some of the things you had, namely, the fact that the president s memory was not very good. Do you remember that . Yes, sir. I also have two other letters. One on february 7, to Merrick Garland where they raise the same concern and then on february 12th, where they go to the dag. You familiar with those . I am familiar with those letters. Bradley is an assistant or associate Attorney General. Right. Merrick garland is the Attorney General. You are familiar with the fact that they went over your head . They were certainly entitled to write whatever letters they wished. I find that interesting. The white house they are communicating with you throughout this investigation, and then the white house says, were going to go to the Principals Office and talk about mr. Hurs report. Do you find that interesting . As i said, they were free to correspond with whomever they wished to correspond with. I did engage in numerous communications with them during the course of the investigation. As it reflected in the regulations, the Attorney General did provide oversight of my investigation. I understand. The chair rois recognizes the gentleman from california. Thank you. I want to say that the House Judiciary Committee is responsible for helping to enforce the rule of law. Unfortunately, the actions of this chairman in ignoring a bipartisan congressional subpoena have damaged at built of the ability t the ab. They focus on our safety. So we can focus on this little guy. Singers safelite repair, safelite replace. [dog whimpers] [thinking] why always the couch . Does he need to go to puppy school . Get his little Puppy Diploma . How much have i been spending on this little guy . When your questions about life turn into questions about money. Theres erica. 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Now that he is president , isnt it easy to say that, that he is unlikely to reoffend because he has almost Unlimited Authority to release these documents . That statement was based on that assessment of the likeliness of reoffending from this particular person, President Biden, is based on a number of factors, including the authority that he has now with respect to classified materials, as well as the experience that he has had going through a Special Counsel investigation. But looking back at 2011, there were multiple instances where he was informed by his staff and they ratcheted it up to where there was a formal process. You are saying he has learned from that when he has proven he hasnt . That goes back to 2011. Congressman, what im saying in the report at page 254 he is a repeat offender, isnt he . Let me move on to Something Else here. You said you had strong moe at the motivation to ignore whats right. You said he viewed himself as a historic figure . I believe those words appear in the report. He was doing this for business purposes. There may be people that want to buy his book . He resolved to write a book and began work on it towards the end of his vice presidency. I think this is really consistent with the biden family when you look at them in trying to enrich themselves. You are familiar with the work that the Oversight Committee has done over the last year, right . I have read some reports. 20 phone calls made to his son that he denied in 2019, 20 Shell Companies that were created, over 20 million. Doesnt it appear theres a pattern here that where i come from, they almost call it money grubbing. Congressman, what im here to testify about today is the work i conducted in this investigation and in this report. I want to thank you for the work that you did as far as you could. Unfortunately, you are part of the guard that guards the swamp out here in washington, d. C. , protecting the elite. Joe biden is part of that company of the elites. You see it in things the department of justice has not acted on, mr. Chairman. Look at the president s son, who does not have to answer for lying on his form 4473 in regards to throwing away a weapon. You see it with the department of justice fends off the irs when the whistleblowers come with this information. Now we see it once again where a president believes he is above the law. Theres no doubt that this president does believe he is above the law. I yield back, mr. Chairman. The gentleman from california is recognized. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Hur, welcome. I concur and let me echo what has been said that your personal story of being an immigrant, your family, the way you contributed to the greatness of this country, shows why americas great. The great immigrant story. Thank you for being here. First question to you is, you are a republican . I am, sir. Does that stop you from a thorough and fair investigation . I certainly hope not. I know not. This story is really proof of the old saying that the coverup is worse than the crime. President trump and President Biden handled their classified materials differently, wouldnt you say . My report includes an assessment of the alleged facts in the pending indictment of former President Trump and a comparison to the facts we found in this case. The handling of the documents was Night And Day, correct . Congressman, do you have a specific aspect that you have in mind . President trump intentionally took classified materials and obstructed justice to ensure those materials wouldnt be taken from him. Refused to work with Law Enforcement, is that correct . My report reflects no findings of obstructive conduct on the part let me ask you another question. President trump has been indicted in the u. S. District court of Southern Florida on 40 counts related to his possession of classified documents, is that correct . I dont know the exact number of counts. I know an indictment is pending in that district. Mr. Hur, you wrote that after being given a number of chances to return classified documents and avoid prosecution, mr. I should say President Trump allegedly did oppose and according to the indictment, he not only refused to turn those documents over, but he obstructed justice by enlisting others to destroy evidence and lie about them, compare and contrasting to President Trump, President Trump turned documents over to the department of justice and consented to searching his home and other locations. Wouldnt you say thats Night And Day when it comes to cooperation with Law Enforcement . Congressman, the report does include an analysis and comparison of the facts that are alleged with respect to former President Trump and does detail steps of cooperation that the president and his team took with respect to my investigation. I would say President Biden you had his full cooperation in this investigation. The report includes cooperative steps the president took. Would this be a factor in your decision to prosecute sdm. It was. You stated the recommendation not to prosecute had nothing to do with the department of Justice Policy not to indict the sitting president . What the report says that even if it were not Current Department of i would reach the conclusion criminal charges are not warranted. Have you set new precedent here today . Do the extent the department of justice makes enforcement or nonenforcement decisions, those are precedents. Those are events that future prosecutors do look to in an endeavor to make sure that law federal law is applied consistently over time. Mr. Hur, i would say based on your education and your career experience, you are a very competent prosecutor, a very, very well prepared attorney. I will ask you one more time. Does the fact that you are republican, does that stop you from a thorough and fair investigation . No. Partisan politics had nothing to do with the work i did or the report i wrote or the decision i reached. Thank you very much for being here. Mr. Chairman, i yield. Gentleman from wisconsin is recognized. Attorney hur, websters dictionary defines senile as exhibiting a decline of cognitive ability such as memory associated with old age. Mr. Hur, based on your report, did you find that the president was senile . I did not. That conclusion does not appear in my report. You felt the president s memory or lack thereof was a critical reason to decline prosecution. The reason im asking this is whether you believe the president would be fit to stand trial, or do you think his lawyers would argue his incompetence to stand trial due to his state of mind, also, you know, was he in a place to actually be questioned . Congressman, my report to the extent it addresses the president s memory gaps that we identified in evidence we obtained during our investigation, they are addressed in the context of determining how relating to whether the president had willful intent when it came to retaining or disclosing National Defense information. I would like to focus on chapter 14 of your report. The classified documents found at the Penn Biden Center. You state in your report that the documents found at the Penn Biden Center were the most highly classified, sensitive, and compartmentalized materials recovered during your investigation, is that correct . Thats correct. Many of the documents came from mr. Bidens west wing office, thats correct . I believe thats reflected in the report. Did you ask if he had packed the boxes himself . I believe that was one of the questions that we asked and that is reflected in the transcript available to the committee. I think its important how would you characterize the packing of the boxes . Was it slow and meticulous . Were they packed in haste without much scrutiny at all . I dont recall off the top of my head how he characterized it. I think the gist is that the manner in which files were packed up and moved at the end of the Obama Administration was in a it was in something of a rushed manner. Very good. According to your report, the boxes were moved between multiple offices between mr. Biden departing his west wing office in January Of 17 and his arrival at the Penn Biden Centers permanent offices. Were they authorized to store classified documents . No. How were they stored . I believe when the materials were recovered, some of them were stored in a storage closet. I believe others were in file cabinet drawers. Whats your assessment on security and Access Control measures at the Penn Biden Center. That was something we looked at. There were some security Access Controls. We did get a handle on people who had access to the office space during the time period when we believed they were there. There were other people, including students and some foreign dignitaies that visited at the time. Very good. You anticipated my next question. When the boxes were discovered to have classified documents more than five years later, who discovered these boxes . Patrick moore . Correct. One of the president s personal counsel. Did mr. Moore have active Security Clearance at the time . No. How about the Executive Assistant at the Penn Biden Center . No. On page 265 actually. Im sorry. I may have misspoken. Im not sure whether that Executive Assistant had an active Security Clearance. You stated, when interviewed by fbi agents, moore believes it was locked and that the Penn Biden Center staff member provided a key to unlock it. His memory was fuzzy on that point. An interview with mr. Bidens Executive Assistant seemed to contradict this. Do you remember this exchange . Did it contradict each other . Sir, you are asking if i remember the exchange with mr. Moore during our interview . Right. Do you remember them contradicting each other . I dont remember that contradiction specifically. Generally, during the interview, sometimes we heard things from some witnesses that were intentioned with what we heard from other witnesses. We did our best to resolve those conflicts. Very quickly, in total, nationalarchives discovered nine documents . From the Penn Biden Center. You declined charges because in summarizing your analysis, you couldnt prove Beyond A Reasonable Doubt that retention of the documents was willful . Correct. Gentle lady from pennsylvania is recognized. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Hur, for your testimony. I think its important we remember the conclusion you reached. In the first sentence of your report, which was, reconclude that no criminal charges are warranted in this matter. Did i read that accurately . You did. In addition to the shortage of evidence, there are other innocent explanations for the documents we have not been able to refute. If you would give me a Page Citation page 6. Yes, i see that language on page 6. Thank you. In addition to those conclusions, your report details several Material Distinctions as you called them between President Biden cooperations with your investigation, is that correct . He did. His team notified authorities when they discovered classified documents . Yes. He consented to multiple searches of his home and other properties, is that correct . Correct. He voluntarily sat for an interview with you . Correct. Your report states that according to the criminal indictment against mr. Trump, he refused to return classified documents for many months despite having multiple chances to do so and he obstructed justice by enlisting others to destroy evidence and lie about it . Correct. You note in your testimony that the specific comments you made about President Bidens memory have gotten a lot of attention. As we have seen today, our republican Colleaguesagain Tryi those in a cheap attempt to weaponize those. You know witnesses, regardless of age, often have difficulty recalling specific statements or facts when asked about them many years after those facts. So lets take a look at a differing witness experiencing a lapse in memory during a deposition. Your next wife was a woman by the name of marla maples . Right. Sitting here today, do you recall what years you were married to miss maples . I would have to get the exact dates for you. Am i correct you married your current wife in january 2005. I dont know relative to that. I dont remember the names. I dont remember the names. You dont remember saying you i dont remember that. I remember you telling me. I would also add that mr. Trump told lawyers, i dont remember 35 times in his deposition for a lawsuit over Trump University and a response to questions from Special Counsel robert mueller, he answered could not recall 27 times. Mr. Hur, you said today that doj process and regulations required you to assess whether a jury would find mr. Biden to be a credible witness, correct . Im not sure i said those wortd words exactly. In my view, how a jury would perceive mr. Biden if he elected to testify in his own defense at trial, that would be part of the whole ball of wax that jurors would consider in determining whether he had willful intent. Do you have any reason to believe that the Special Counsel who investigated and charged mr. Trump with willful retention of classified documents would have failed to make an assessment of whether they would find mr. Trump a credible witness . I dont have any information relating to what how im not qualified to answer that question as to what went into mr. Smiths decision making. You are qualified to say what are the normal procedures followed by a Special Counsel, correct . Im familiar with the rules set forth. My understanding of how to apply them. What you did . Correct. I would suggest that we can all assume that the fact that mr. Trump was charged with multiple counts of willfully concealing classified documents suggests that the Special Counsel in that case determined that mr. Trumps denials are not credible. I would ask unanimous consent to enter into the record an excerpt from the committees transcribed interview with the former assistant in charge of the Fbi Field Office in washington, d. C. In which he explained the urgency to retrieve and secure classified documents from Donald Trumps estate because they contained National Security information that should not be viewed by anyone without the proper Security Clearance. He could not view them given their high Security Clearance despite being the Assistant Director in charge of the Fbi Field Office. Without objection. I was interested in the dates set forth in your report, mr. Hur. The reason im interested is because i keep getting confusion confused from 2017 and 2024. It seems like his memory was bad in 2017 and then it was bad today. Theres never any distinction made. Isnt it true if you are going to look at his at prosecuting as you were, you would look carefully at his condition in 2017 . Isnt that the proper time . I think you say in your report that the most your best case i think you call it out the best case for charges would rely on mr. Bidens possession of afghanistan documents in his Virginia Home in February 2017 when he was a private citizen and when he told his ghost writer he just found classified material. Thats the best case. Yes. You work your way through a series of defenses against your best case. You were looking at his condition in 2017. Do i have that right . You do. His memory was bad then. We can draw conclusions whether improved over the next six years or not. I want to make sure its clear that we are looking at his condition in 2017, which you find as you go through the list of defenses that is his memory is bad, his memory is bad, his memory is bad theres six or seven defenses here. It gets me to this question. I actually pulled this quote out this morning that perhaps your report concluded and perhaps it did not that the president is, quote, incapable of being held accountable, but thats not quite what happened, is it . You didnt find he was incapable of being held accountable, did you . I did not. Those words do not appear in my report. They do not. You reached a conclusion you didnt have the evidence. But then your report continually recites these defenses. Im having a hard time putting the two together. If you didnt have the evidence, why do you persist in reciting these defenses . Congressman, i wrote my report as an explanation of my decision to decline charges as to President Biden. The way that i came up with that explanation and wrote it in my report for the Attorney General is the following. The approach that i took was a prosecutor envisions what would be the probable outcome of trial if we charge this case, if we presented the evidence to a jury, and not only the government presenting the evidence, but what would happen if the Defense Lawyers got a chance to poke holes in the governments case at trial, and with respect to one of the several potential defenses that i lay out in the report, one of them does focus on the president s memoryrelated issues. Thats a defense the president s Defense Lawyers may present at trial. A jury is going to be confronted with at least three separate sets of evidence relating to the the president s memory. One is the recordings from forgive me, but im limited on time. You say, i think, that the evidence suggests he is incapable of forming or you are incapable of proving intent. Theres a bit of a difference there, right . He may well have had the intent, but you could not holding these documents and i hate to say hiding the documents, but you couldnt prove it. You fell back to various defenses that might also be asserted against you. Kind of a heap of rationale for not pursuing the president . Do i have it right . I think were on the same page. What im trying to convey is the way prosecutors assess the strengths and weaknesses of their case is to think through, in the governments case in chief, here is the evidence we will present. The jury might be with us. Maybe another thats not the end of the trial. The trial has to include presentation from the Defense Lawyers. You are correct. Im a lawyer. I get it. Your report is not an exoneration so much as a determination the evidence as you saw it would not overcome the defenses you identified plus lack of evidence you perceived. Its not an exoneration, is it . The word exoneration does not appear anywhere in my report. Thats not my conclusion. The other thing thats of interest i think you were misquoted. You said something about someone i think it was mr. Raskin suggested that you i will run out of time. I appreciate the work you do as a prosecutor. I yield back. Mr. Hur, we have been at this close to three hours. If you can hang with us, we woulhur, we have been at this close to three hours. If you can hang with us, we would like to keep going. Theres a chance we could complete votes by the time we have to go to votes on the house floor, about 1 40. I can keep going. We will try to do that. Theres a chance we may not. I wanted you to know the lay of the land. I yield to the gentleman from colorado. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, mr. Hur, for your testimony and for your service as a prosecutor at the department of justice. I want to focus more on the progress of the investigation. Some process questions. You were appointed by Attorney General garland as Special Counsel to investigate the president s handling of classified documents in January Of 2023 . Correct. Attorney general garland was nominated by President Biden . Correct. During your 15month investigation, did the Attorney General attempt to interester interfere . No. Did any other member of the department of justice or within the administration refuse to cooperate with your investigation . No. Were denied access to anything you needed . No. You submitted i think this is right your final report to Attorney General garland on february 5th, 2024 . Correct. It was released publically three days later, On February 8th of 2024 . I believe thats true. In the final report that was released, were any of your substantive findings redacted or changed in any way . No. None of your findings were modified by the Attorney General . No. Did the Attorney General issue any kind of statement or a letter attempting to describe the contents of your report . No. You are familiar, i know, im sure, with the investigation that was conducted by Special Counsel mueller years ago with respect to the former president . And at that time, Attorney General barr was in charge of the Justice Department. He sat where you sat. Department he sat where you sat i own a lemonade and Ice Cream Shop in florida, so i can feel and see that my lines have gotten deeper just from a year out in the sun. Im still marie and i got botox® cosmetic. I did not want a dramatic change. I wanted something subtle. And im really, really happy with the results. Its still me, but with fewer lines. Botox® cosmetic is fda approved to temporarily make frown lines, crows feet, and Forehead Lines look better. 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Made from real meat and veggies. Portioned for your dog. And delivered right to your door. Its smarter, healthier pet food. Get 50 off your first box at thefarmersdog. Com realfood realize ethically on unethically dubious tactics end quote. The prosecutorial records a string of mistrials and overturned convictions. The Prosecutorial Theory is a balanced interpretation of federal. That did not comport with the text of the statute or president of this court according to the Supreme Court justice. And, so, you know, my question is, do you think, in the case of jack smith, do you think justices looking at President Trump . Is the justice . Sir, im not here to express opinions with respect to a case toer in defendant. Im here to discuss the work that i did with respect to President Biden. Mr. President , i yield my time. Explain what specifically led you to this conclusion. Congressman jordan, im sorry, the mic was turned off. Can you explain specifically in your interview with President Biden led you to this conclusion . The conclusion the broad statement thats been cited many times. The totality of the time that i spent with the president during his voluntary interview is something that i certainly considered in framing my assessment in the report. That includes not only the words in the cold record of the transcript of the interview but also, the experience of being there in the room with him, frankly, considering how he would present to a jury in a criminal trial if charges were brought. Im asking specifically, i know you cited in the report, the dates he couldnt remember when he began as Vice President and the term. He cited that in the report. Is there anything specifically that stands out in that interview with the former president . A number of things stand out. Im aware that the transcript has now been available. I do provide certain examples in my report of significant personally painful experiences. About which the president was unable to recall, certain information. I also took into account the president s overall demeanor in interacting with me during the fiveplus voluntary interview. So it was a wealth of details be being there with the president , including his inability to recall certain things and ill also say is reflected in the transcript, the fact that he was prompted by members of the council well, the brief look at the transcript this morning, we just got it this morning, i saw some of that, i recognize the gentle lady of texas excuse me, pa. I got an upgrade. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Hur, thank you chairman, thank you, mr. Hur, for your service, for your country, for your team service in the investigation. You determined after what you described as rigorous detailed and thorough analysis that President Biden should not be prosecuted for mishandling classified documents. In fact, everybody can take a look at your report, the very first sentence says as much. It says, quote, we conclude that no criminal charges are warranted in this matter. Am i correct . Yes. Thats the bottom line of this report, amany i correct . That is the first sentence. Its the first sentence and bottom line. Theres an awful lot of misinformation thats been put forward by the press in some cases and by the other side of this dias. You didnt reach this decision because President Biden was sympathetic, is that correct . I reached the decision based on the totality of the reasons that i set forth at length in my report. Based on the evidence. And while mr. Trump who is being prosecuted is not sympathetic . You didnt calibrate any of that in there, sympathetic, not sympathetic, doesnt matter, its the evidences right . Congresswoman, i did not reach any consideration of the evidence, considering President Trump i trust with your credibility, were you not out to get mr. Trump, nor here to help mr. Biden. I think its about the evidence, i think you say that over and over again in your report. Why did you decide President Biden should not be prosecuted . Your report tells us, quote, we conclude the questioned is not sufficient to convict, those are your words, is that correct . I believe if those exact words appear in the court theyre consistent with my position. Very good. Theyre the exact words. That was not the case with donald trump. You have a copy of your report dont you in front of you . I do. Read a portion for me, your wards, page 11, starting at line 3, beginning with the words unlike the evidence involving mr. Biden would you read the next few sentences. Unlike the evidence involving mr. Biden, the evidence set forth by mr. Trump if proven would have facts keep going. Congresswoman, im happy for you to read i think its more fitting that you i think its more