After nearly a year-long investigation into whether or not President Joe Biden and his staff broke the law in their handling of classified documents during and after his time as vice president, a 345-page report handed down by special counsel Robert Hur concludes that, no, they did not.
Focusing on the circumstances surrounding how and why certain documents from the Obama administration ended up at an old office space and Biden's Wilmington, Delaware home, Hur finds that Biden did "willfully" retain the materials and "was critical of their handling," but that this “does not establish Mr. Biden’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.” Furthering that prosecuting Biden would be “unwarranted."
According to The Washington Post, Hur said it would be "difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — by then a former president well into his eighties — of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness,” with the outlet adding that "the report portrayed Biden as well-intentioned, but sometimes hapless and forgetful."
Per reporting from The Hill, "Biden has maintained he did nothing wrong, and his team has repeatedly noted that his lawyers quickly notified the National Archives and cooperated with the Justice Department after discovering the documents."
