Alina Habba Raises Fresh Joe Biden Concern

One of Donald Trump's lawyers said she was concerned that President Joe Biden felt he didn't need to answer a question from the Department of Justice about his son's death.

Alina Habba told Fox News Channel's Hannity on Thursday that Biden "doubled down on it and said: 'I didn't think I needed to answer that question'," when he was asked about a report that he had trouble remembering when his son Beau died.

In a press conference at the White House earlier on Thursday, Biden referred to part of the report by Department of Justice Special Counsel Robert Hur into his handling of classified documents. It that said the president "appeared to have significant limitations" regarding his memory. One of those limitations, Hur said, was that the president "did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died."

In an angry retort, Biden asked: "How the hell dare [Hur] raise that?"

He added: "Frankly, when I was asked the question I thought to myself it wasn't any of their damn business."

But Habba insisted that Biden had "an obligation to answer truthfully" during the investigation.

Newsweek approached the White House for comment via email out of hours.

Hur's report said Biden had kept classified documents from when he was Barack Obama's vice president from 2009 to 2017.

The president's attorney notified authorities after documents were found in Biden's Delaware home and at his office in the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., in late 2022 and early 2023.

The report said Biden "willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen."

But the special counsel also said the president wouldn't be convicted of allegedly mishandling documents because he "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."

Biden's legal team said the language used in the report was "highly prejudicial." White House lawyer Richard Sauber and personal counsel Bob Bauer wrote in a letter that a "lack of recall of years-old event" was "a commonplace occurrence among witnesses."

The lawyers added: "There is ample evidence from your interview that the president did well in answering your questions about years-old events over the course of five hours."

In a statement, Biden said he had "cooperated completely" and " sought no delays."

Biden added he was pleased there were no charges brought and now considers the matter closed.

"This was an exhaustive investigation going back more than 40 years, even into the 1970s when I was a young Senator," he said. "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 8 and 9 of last year, even though Israel had just been attacked on October 7 and I was in the middle of handling an international crisis."

Biden said his "memory is fine" and "has not gotten worse," during his Thursday remarks, but his detractors pointed out he seemingly confused Mexico with Egypt during the conference.

"As you know, initially, the president of Mexico, El-Sisi, did not want to open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in," Biden said.

The president of Mexico is Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is the leader of Egypt.

After Biden wasn't charged with mishandling classified documents, Habba said there were "two systems of justice" for Republicans and Democrats.

In Florida, Trump faces 32 counts of unlawful retention of national defense information and eight other charges that include making false statements and a conspiracy to conceal them.

He denies all of the charges against him and says they are politically motivated.

In Florida, Trump is indicted on the following charges.

• Altering, destroying, mutilating or concealing an object - one count
• Conspiracy to obstruct justice - one count
• Concealing a document in a federal investigation - one count
• Scheme to conceal - one count
• False statements and representations - one count
• Withholding a document or record - one count
• Corruptly concealing a document or record - one count
• Corruptly altering, destroying, mutilating or concealing a document, record or other object - one count
• Retention of national defense information - 32 counts

Trump called on Special Counsel Jack Smith, in charge of the Florida case against him, to drop the charges in light of Hur's report.

On his Truth Social media platform, Trump wrote: "If Special Counsel Jack Smith wants to do good for our Country, and help to unify it, he should drop all Litigation against Joe Biden's Political Opponent, ME, and let our Country HEAL."

Biden said there was a difference between his conduct and Trump's, saying the documents were at his house rather than at a public country club like Trump's Mar-a-Lago home.

Hur too said there was a distinction between Biden and the former president's alleged actions. Newsweek has approached a spokesperson for Trump for comment via email out of hours.

"After being given multiple chances to return classified documents and avoid prosecution, Mr. Trump allegedly did the opposite," Hur wrote. "According to the indictment, he not only refused to return the documents for many months, but he also obstructed justice by enlisting others to destroy evidence and then to lie about it."

Corrected on 02/10/24 at 2.01 p.m. ET. Corrects name of show