Biden addressed the special counsel report on his handling of classified docs

Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney is calling for the Cabinet to "explore" the use of the Constitution’s 25th Amendment to remove President Biden from office, following Special Counsel Robert Hur’s "alarming" report.

Hur did not recommend criminal charges against the president for mishandling classified documents. Those records included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, among other records related to national security and foreign policy which Hur said implicated "sensitive intelligence sources and methods." 

Hur, though, described Biden as a "sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory." Hur, throughout the more than 300-page report, said "it would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him" of a serious felony "that requires a mental state of willfulness," and said he would be "well into his eighties."

This is an excerpt of a story by Fox News' Brooke Singman. Click here to read the full report on Rep. Tenney's invocation of the 25th Amendment.

President Biden addressed the nation Thursday night, saying his memory is "fine" and defended his re-election campaign, saying he is the "most qualified person in this country to be president."

Biden's address to the nation from the White House Thursday night comes just hours after Special Counsel Robert Hur released his report, which did not recommend criminal charges against the president for mishandling classified documents. Those records included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, among other records related to national security and foreign policy which Hur said implicated "sensitive intelligence sources and methods." 

Hur, though, described Biden as a "sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory." Hur, throughout the more than 300-page report, said "it would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him" of a serious felony "that requires a mental state of willfulness," and said he would be "well into his eighties." 

This is an excerpt of a story by Fox News' Brooke Singman. Click here to read more on Biden's address to the nation.

Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report details how President Biden “willfully” held on to classified materials. The documents were originally found at his old offices at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C. This prompted an investigation into his Delaware home, where documents with classified markings were found.

Here are the takeaways from the special counsel report:

The report accuses Biden of having a “poor memory”

The Special Counsel’s report describes the current president as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory." Robert Hur stated this as part of the reason he does not recommend Biden be brought to trial. According to the report, Biden also struggled to “remember events” during the special counsel interview and interviews with his ghostwriter in 2017. Some of the key details he forgot included when he was vice president and when his son Beau died.

Biden ascribed his memory lapses during the special counsel interviews to dealing with the Israel-Hamas war.

Biden won’t be charged following the release of the Special Counsel report

Based on the findings in the investigation of the more than 200 classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, Special Counsel Robert Hur has not recommended criminal charges against Joe Biden. The investigation spanned numerous months and looked into the president’s handling of Obama-era classified documents.

Trump demands that charges against him be dropped

Biden previously claimed that Donald Trump was “irresponsible” for his handling of classified documents. That statement came before the White House’s admission that Biden had sensitive documents from his days as vice president.

Following the release of the report in Biden’s classified documents case, Donald Trump has now made the demand that the Special Counsel Jack Smith drop charges against him. Trump told Fox News Digital, “This is two standards of justice and it has to end in our country.”.

President Biden retained documents marked "secret" and "confidential" related to Ukraine and China, according to Special Counsel Robert Hur's report.

Hur, who released his report to the public on Thursday after months of investigating, did not recommend criminal charges against Biden for mishandling and retaining classified documents — and stated that he wouldn't bring charges against Biden even if he were not in the Oval Office. 

Those records included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan and other countries, among other records related to national security and foreign policy, which Hur said implicated "sensitive intelligence sources and methods." 

This is an excerpt from a story by Fox News' Brooke Singman. Click here to read more on Biden's retention of documents.

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley is reiterating her calls for President Biden to take a mental competency test, in the wake of a special counsel report that described the 81-year-old president's memory as "hazy," "fuzzy," and "poor."

Haley, the last remaining major rival to former President Donald Trump in the race for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, said in a statement Thursday that, "Joe Biden should take a mental competency test immediately, and it should be shared with the public."

The former two-term South Carolina governor who later served as ambassador to the United Nations in the Trump administration, put out her statement after Special Counsel Robert Hur announced he wouldn't prosecute Biden, despite finding that the president "willfully" retained classified information, posing "serious risks to national security."

This is an excerpt of a story from Fox News' Paul Steinhauser. Read the fully story, on Haley's reaction to the release of the Hur report.

President Biden addressed the nation Thursday night, saying his memory is "fine" and defended his re-election campaign, saying he is the "most qualified person in this country to be president."

Biden's address to the nation from the White House Thursday night comes just hours after Special Counsel Robert Hur released his report, which did not recommend criminal charges against the president for mishandling classified documents. Those records included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, among other records related to national security and foreign policy which Hur said implicated "sensitive intelligence sources and methods." 

Hur, though, described Biden as a "sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory." Hur, throughout the more than 300-page report, said "it would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him" of a serious felony "that requires a mental state of willfulness," and said he would be "well into his eighties." 

Biden, on Thursday night, said he agreed.

"I'm well-meaning and I'm an elderly man and I know what the hell I'm doing," Biden said. "I've been president. I put this country back on its feet. I don't need his recommendation."

Biden added: "My memory is fine."

Moments later, though, Biden transitioned to discuss the conflict in the Middle East.

Biden referred to Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the president of Egypt, as "the president of Mexico."

During his address, Biden also fired back at Special Counsel Robert Hur for suggesting he did not remember when his son Beau died.

"How dare he raise that?" Biden said. "Frankly, when I was asked a question, I thought to myself, what's that any of your damn business?"

"Let me tell you something...I swear, since the day he died, every single day...I wear the rosary he got from Our Lady--" Biden stopped, seemingly forgetting where the rosary was from.

Dean Phillips, the longshot Democratic challenger to President Biden in the 2024 election, called the release of a long-awaited report on Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, “another sad day for America and particularly for President Biden and his family.”

“While President Biden ‘willfully retained and disclosed classified materials’ the Special Counsel elected not to prosecute him because a jury would likely not convict a 'well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,'” Phillips said, speaking to Special Counsel Robert Hurt’s decision not to recommend charges against Biden.

“The Report simply affirms what most Americans already know, that the President cannot continue to serve as our Commander-in-Chief beyond his term ending January 20, 2025,” Phillips said. “Already facing the lowest approval numbers in modern history and losing in each of the key battleground states, this Report has all but handed the 2024 election to Donald Trump if Joe Biden is the Democratic nominee – and I invite fellow Democrats to face the truth."

Read more on Dean Phillips' comments from Fox News' Andrew Mark Miller.

President Biden said Thursday that he struggled to remember certain key dates during his interviews with Special Counsel Robert Hur as a result of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Biden told reporters that he was "handling an international crisis" at the time of his interviews with federal investigators shortly after Hur released his 345-page report Thursday detailing the findings in his investigation into the president's handling of classified documents . In the report, Hur noted that Biden's memory failed him in multiple instances, saying the president forgot when he was vice president and when his son Beau died.

"I sought no delays. In fact, I was so determined to get the special counsel what they needed," Biden remarked. "I went forward with a five-hour in-person interview over the two days of October — the ninth, eighth and ninth last year — even though Israel had just been attacked by Hamas on the seventh. I was in the middle of handling an international crisis."

This is an excerpt of a story from Fox News' Thomas Catenacci. Read the full story about Biden blaming the Israel-Hamas war for struggling to remember key details during the Hur interview.

President Biden considered resigning as vice president "in protest" over former President Barack Obama's Afghanistan policies in 2009 over fear the war would become "another Vietnam," according to Special Counsel Robert Hur's report on Biden's mishandling of classified documents released Thursday.

Hur has been investigating Biden's improper retention of classified records since last year. The papers included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, among other national security and foreign policy records, which Hur said implicated "sensitive intelligence sources and methods." 

"Tomorrow the President is going to make a fateful decision regarding Afghanistan - as I sat looking out the window at the sea - thinking I should resign in protest over what will bring his administration down," Biden wrote in what the report noted was an "Af/Pak" notebook he used to take notes during a number of National Security Council meetings on Afghanistan in 2009.

This is an excerpt from a story by Fox News' Brandon Gillespie. Read the story about Biden contemplating resignation as vice president.

Judge Jeanine Pirro on Thursday said the special counsel’s report on President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents was “worse than an indictment” and “demands the [invocation of the] 25th Amendment” for the details on Biden’s declining mental faculties.

“This man needs to be thrown out of office,” Pirro said on ‘The Five.’

Her comments come after Special Counsel Robert Hur announced he was not recommending criminal charges against President Biden for mishandling classified documents, according to his report after a months-long investigation into the president's alleged improper retention of classified records. 

That has led to Republicans and allies of former President Trump to criticize the Justice Department for a perceived double standard as Trump is facing a separate investigation for his own mishandling of classified records.

“Everything about this tells and shows the American people how there are two separate systems of justice,” Pirro said. “If you get to the point where you say no jury will convict this guy because he is non compos mentis because he does not have the mental capacity to form the intent, that means you've already gotten to the point where you believe he should be indicted, but you're not indicting him because you don't believe the jury will find him competent to stand trial.”

Pirro added: “This is the worst thing that can happen to Joe Biden.” 

Former President Trump is slamming the results of a years-long investigation into President Biden for mishandling classified documents, calling it “Scam Justice.”

“Biden took the Documents in his ‘mental primetime,’” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social network. “He shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this, and he wasn’t protected by the Presidential Records Act.”

Trump, who is also the target of an investigation over his own mishandling of classified documents, said he “was cooperative with the Investigators.”

“Crooked Joe Biden didn’t – Just the opposite, following the usual, corrupt Democrat Playbook,” Trump wrote.

“He ‘willfully retained’ documents. This is Scam Justice – Deranged Jack Smith and his Thugs should immediately drop the totally discredited Documents Hoax against me. A TWO-TIERED SYSTEM OF JUSTICE AND SELECTIVE PROSECUTION!”  

Special Counsel Robert Hur described President Biden as a "sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory," and said he would bring no criminal charges against the president after a months-long investigation into his improper retention of classified documents related to national security. 

Hur's report was made public Thursday afternoon. 

Hur has been investigating Biden’s improper retention of classified records since last year. Those records included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, among other records related to national security and foreign policy which Hur said implicated "sensitive intelligence sources and methods." 

This is an excerpt of a story by Fox News' Brooke Singman. Read the full story on the Special Counsel's description of Biden.

Special Counsel Robert Hur in his report released Thursday said that in 2017, then ex-vice president Joe Biden  told the ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer of his book, Promise Me, Dad, that he had "just found all the classified stuff downstairs" -- referencing classified documents he kept related to military and foreign policy decisions in Afghanistan from 2009. 

Hur explains in the report, which detailed his decision not to charge Biden in for keeping classified documents, that during that time in the Obama administration, Biden kept extensive notes because he opposed President Obama's policy decisions. During one Thanksgiving holiday, Biden wrote a handwritten memo Obama to "change the President's mind" on Afghanistan.

According to Hur's report, FBI found over 200 pages of documents related to the 2009 Afghanistan policy review in a "mangled" box in Biden's garage, some of which were marked "CONFIDENTIAL REL NATO/ISAF," "TOP SECRET/SCI" and "TOP SECRET," among other classified markings.

"Several folders in the garage box contained materials that Mr. Biden appears to have accessed both shortly before and shortly after February 2017, the day Mr. Biden told Zwonitzer he had 'just' found classified documents downstairs," the report states.

The report says that during "many of the interviews with his ghostwriter, Mr. Biden read from his notebooks nearly verbatim, sometimes for an hour or more at a time.""Zwonitzer later transcribed the recordings of the interviews. Zwonitzer described this process of listening to and transcribing Mr. Biden's reading from his notebooks as 'incredibly painstaking,'" the report states.

Hur says that "at times during these interviews, Mr. Biden took steps to ensure that Zwonitzer did not read or have access to the classified portions of the notebooks."

But Biden "read nearly verbatim" from portions of his notes on a 2014 Situation Room meeting.

"Some of the portions that Mr. Biden read to Zwonitzer remains classified at the Secret level," the report says. The report also notes that "at some point after learning of Special Counsel Hur’s appointment," Zwonitzer "deleted digital audio recordings of his conversations" with Biden.

In a September 2022 interview with CBS, Biden called former President Donald Trump “irresponsible” for allegedly having marked classified documents in his home.  

"How that could possibly happen, how one anyone could be that irresponsible," Biden responded. "And I thought what data was in there that may compromise sources and methods. By that, I mean, names of people helped or et cetera." 

"And it's just totally irresponsible," Biden added.

At the time of those comments, Special Counsel Jack Smith had recently opened an investigation into the former president’s handling of classified documents.

After Biden’s comments, Special Counsel Robert Hur opened a separate investigation into Biden’s mishandling of classified documents after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen.

Hur released his report Thursday after a months-long investigation saying that he would not recommend criminal charges against President Biden.

Special Counsel Robert Hur's months-long investigation revealed in a new report that the Executive Secretary team was alarmed in 2010 by the number of classified briefing books that then-Vice President Biden hadn't returned and that when they were returned "some of the content was missing."

The report said that Cynthia Hogan, who was Biden's counsel during the first term of the Obama administration, was alerted by the Executive Secretary team in June 2010 when it was discovered that "nearly thirty of the classified briefing books from the first six months of 2010" were not returned and when Biden "failed to return Top Secret, Sensitive Compartmented Information" contents of a classified briefing book during a trip to the Hamptons.

Hogan met with Biden days after the Top Secret briefing book went missing to discuss procedures and implemented additional security protocols for handling classified materials, but there were still issues.

According to the report, staff started creating "a spreadsheet that logged the date, book number, how the book was delivered, and date of return." However, Biden's staff still "continued to struggle to retrieve" the classified briefing books.

"But we also found that Mr. Biden continued frequently to leave classified documents unattended, outside of safes, at the Naval Observatory and his Delaware home," the report continues. "As to the Naval Observatory, only one of the eight naval enlisted aides we interviewed recalled a safe there ever being used to store classified material. Several did not recall a second-floor safe at all. And only one aide recalled a safe being in the library of the Delaware home, but the aide never opened it."

Republican presidential candidate and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley appeared to defend former President Donald Trump on Thursday after it was revealed that no criminal charges would be recommended against President Biden for mishandling classified documents.

In his report on the matter, Special Counsel Robert Hur described Biden as a "sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory," and said he would bring no criminal charges against the president after a months-long investigation into his improper retention of classified documents related to national security.

In response to the Thursday evening news, Haley wrote in a post to X, “The double standard is glaring. Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump were reckless with classified documents. If Biden’s defense is old age and forgetfulness, Trump can easily make the same claim. Trump should quickly hire Biden's lawyers.”

Unlike Biden, Trump was charged out of Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation related to his retention of classified materials. Trump pleaded not guilty to all 37 felony charges out of Smith's probe. The charges include willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements.

Trump, the 2024 GOP front-runner, was then charged with an additional three counts as part of a superseding indictment out of Smith’s investigation — an additional count of willful retention of national defense information and two additional obstruction counts. Trump pleaded not guilty.

That trial is set to begin on May 20.

Trump told Fox News Digital on Thursday that he believes Smith needs to "immediately" drop all charges against him in his classified records case following the decision not to bring charges against Biden.

"They should immediately drop the case against me," he said. "I am covered by the Presidential Records Act — he wasn't. He had many, many times more documents — totally unguarded. Mine were always surrounded by Secret Service and in locked rooms."

Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

Republicans are claiming President Biden is unfit for office and that his Department of Justice is operating on a double standard over a new report on his handling of classified documents. 

Republicans slammed the report by Special Counsel Robert Hur, released on Thursday, which "uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen." 

GOP lawmakers seized on Hur's descriptions of Biden's fragility and advanced age, including an instance when he had trouble recalling the year of his son's death, as well as Hur's decision not to charge Biden.

This is an excerpt from Fox News' Jamie Joseph and Elizabeth Elkind. Read about the Republicans' response to Biden following the classified documents report.

EXCLUSIVE: Former President Trump told Fox News Digital that "deranged" Special Counsel Jack Smith needs to "immediately" drop all charges against him in his classified records case following the decision not to bring charges against President Biden for his retention of sensitive national security documents.

Trump spoke exclusively to Fox News Digital after Special Counsel Robert Hur's report was made public. Hur did not recommend criminal charges against Biden for mishandling and retaining classified documents — and stated that he wouldn't bring charges against Biden even if he were not in the Oval Office. 

Those records included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, among other records related to national security and foreign policy which Hur said implicated "sensitive intelligence sources and methods." 

This is an excerpt from Fox News' Brooke Singman. Read about Trump's demand to drop charges against him.

According to Special Counsel Robert Hur's report on President Biden's mishandling of classified documents released Thursday, Biden could not remember key details, such as when he was vice president, during interviews with investigators. 

Hur has been investigating Biden's improper retention of classified records since last year. The papers included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, among other national security and foreign policy records, which Hur said implicated "sensitive intelligence sources and methods." He announced he would not seek criminal charges against Biden.

The report, however, also contains an eye-opening portion on how Biden struggled to remember when he served as vice president in the Obama administration while being interviewed for the investigation. Additionally, Hur's office believed Biden's lawyers would use those "limitations" in his recall if it went to trial.

This is an excerpt from Fox News' Brooke Singman. Read about Biden's inability to remember key details according to the classified documents.

Former Trump defense attorney James Trusty, who represented the 2024 GOP frontrunner in Special Counsel Jack Smith's case against him related to classified records, told Fox News Digital that the Justice Department's "inconsistency in approach" related to President Biden's retention of classified records compared to Trump's is "striking."

"This investigative report reads more like a defense memo to the prosecution, acknowledging all sorts of willful moments on behalf of President Biden but ultimately dismissing it as not a make-able case," Trusty, a lawyer with Ifrah Law, told Fox News Digital. "It may be true that he has a bad memory, but this immediate emphasis on him being a friendly, cooperative grandfather figure, smells like a result-oriented assessment."

Trusty said Special Counsel Robert Hur's report "is basically admitting it is a chargeable offense but it is fast-forwarding to the end point and arguing, very defensively, that Biden, himself, could create reasonable doubt based on his poor memory and his apparent cooperation."

Trusty, reflecting on his representation of Trump, said he and attorneys on the team sent a letter to the House Intelligence Committee laying out the "systemic problems with the mishandling of documents."

Trusty said "every president after leaving office has been found to have classified materials," and urged Congress to create "document retention plans" instead of "criminalizing" the matter.

"So at the end of the day, in the absence of a further corrupt purpose on behalf of President Biden, I don't have great problems with the ultimate result of not prosecuting him--except for the selective prosecution of President Trump," Trusty said. "It is the inconsistency of the approach that is striking."

Trusty added: "I can guarantee you that Jack Smith's prosecution memo doesn't have a bunch of friendly characterizations of President Trump explaining how there could be reasonable doubt."

Trusty was referring to Hur's statement in the report, referring to Biden as a "sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."

Meanwhile, Trusty said Biden's case involves "unauthorized removal of these classified documents, not just retention."

"That is actually a distinction from President Trump," Trusty explained. Former President Trump told Fox News Digital he did "nothing wrong," and was covered by the Presidential Records Act.

"I would argue that President trump is right about the Presidential Records Act – that it is a complete defense that this should never be considered a criminal matter," Trusty said. "But for one president, and one president only, it is being criminalized."

He added: "I think the ultimate result should not be this defensiveness of Robert Hur's investigation—it should be recognition that former presidents frequently hold onto materials that somebody should collect."

"And none of that makes it criminal, but this DOJ used it as an opportunity to raid Mar-a-Lago and to criminalize something for the first time in history," Trusty said.

Special Counsel Robert Hur will not recommend criminal charges against President Biden for mishandling classified documents, according to his report after a months-long investigation into the president's alleged improper retention of classified records. 

Hur has been investigating Biden’s improper retention of classified records since last year. Those records included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, among other records related to national security and foreign policy which Hur said implicated "sensitive intelligence sources and methods." 

"We conclude that no criminal charges are warranted in this matter," the report states. "We would reach the same conclusion even if the Department of Justice policy did not foreclose criminal charges against a sitting president."