Five Key Takeaways From Joe Biden's Classified Documents Report

Special Counsel Robert Hur's report on President Joe Biden's handling of classified materials presents a harsh critique of the president, while arguing that his conduct was not criminal.

Classified documents dating to Biden's time as vice president under the administration of former President Barack Obama were discovered in Biden's Delaware home and at his office in the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., in late 2022 and early 2023, with the president's attorney having notified authorities.

Hur's report, released on Thursday, found that Biden "willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen," but concluded that "no criminal charges are warranted in this matter."

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Hur to lead the Biden investigation in January 2023. Hur also serves as U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland, having been appointed to the position by former President Donald Trump in 2018.

Trump, who faces federal felony charges accusing him of mishandling sensitive documents after his presidency, has repeatedly demanded that Biden be prosecuted and claims that the current president's case is "much bigger" than his.

Biden said in a statement obtained by Newsweek on Thursday that he was "pleased to see" that Hur had concluded "there would be no charges brought in this case and the matter is now closed," while adding that he takes "these issues seriously and no one has ever questioned that."

Here are five key takeaways from Hur's report:

Hur Said the Biden and Trump Cases Are Not Equivalent

Hur concluded that there was a vast difference between Trump and Biden's handling of sensitive materials, writing that the former president "allegedly did the opposite" when being "given multiple chances to return classified documents and avoid prosecution."

"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," Hur wrote.

"In contrast, Mr. Biden turned in classified documents to the National Archives and the Department of Justice, consented to the search of multiple locations including his homes, sat for a voluntary interview, and in other ways cooperated with the investigation," he continued.

Newsweek reached out to Trump's office for comment via email on Thursday.

A Ghostwriter Accessed Classified Material for Biden's 2017 Memoir

The report states that Biden's 2017 memoir, Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose—which focuses on Biden losing his son Beau to brain cancer during the waning days of Biden's vice presidency—was written by a ghostwriter who received classified information from Biden's notebooks.

Hur wrote that Biden knew the writer, Mark Zwonitzer, had "never held a security clearance" and was not "familiar with the restrictions on the handling of classified material."

"At one point, Mr. Biden told Zwonitzer that some of the information in [a notebook used for the book] may be classified," wrote Hur. "Some of these entries remain classified up to the Top Secret level."

Biden Viewed Classified Documents as 'Private and Valued Possessions'

While researching his 2017 book, the report says, Biden visited the National Archives to "review his classified notecards," while also keeping notebooks with classified information "in unlocked drawers at home."

"He had strong motivations to do so and to ignore the rules for properly handling the classified information in his notebooks," the report states. "He consulted the notebooks liberally during hours of discussions with his ghostwriter and viewed them as highly private and valued possessions with which he was unwilling to part."

Biden's 'Poor Memory' Was Cited as Reason to Avoid Prosecution

Hur wrote that Biden's "memory was significantly limited, both during his recorded interviews with the ghostwriter in 2017, and in his interview with our office in 2023," before suggesting that jurors would find the president to be a "sympathetic" figure at any potential trial.

"At trial, Mr. 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," wrote Hur. "Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt."

"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," he added.

Hur Would Have Declined Charges Even if Biden Were Not in Office

Although Biden cannot be prosecuted as a sitting president, Hur noted that he would have reached "the same conclusion" on pursuing charges if prosecution had been an option.

"The evidence does not establish Mr. Biden's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt," the report states. "Prosecution of Mr. Biden is also unwarranted based on our consideration of the aggravating and mitigating factors set forth in the Department of Justice's Principles of Federal Prosecution."

"The Department routinely highlights such risks when pursuing classified mishandling prosecutions," it continues. "But addressing those risks through criminal charges, the only means available to this office, is not the proper remedy here."