🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
Transcripts of President Joe Biden's two-day interview with Department of Justice investigators have been released ahead Special Counsel Robert Hur's Tuesday testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.
The interviews were conducted on October 8 and 9, 2023, at the White House. They contain 268 pages of interviews with Hur, a special counsel appointed to investigate Biden's handling of classified documents.
You can read the full transcripts below.
Biden had the documents at his Wilmington, Delaware, home and his former office in Washington, D.C.
In his report released last month, Hur described Biden as a "sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory" and recommended that he not face prosecution for holding the documents.
Democrats criticized the report for suggesting the president was senile or forgetful. Republicans criticized it for not recommending that Biden be prosecuted, especially as former President Donald Trump is facing a trial for holding presidential records.
The transcript helps clarify some key points of dispute, especially on Hur's claim that Biden could not remember the year his son, Beau, died.
It shows that Biden remembered the date and two other people in the room answered the year, possibly before Biden could answer.
"What month did Beau die? Oh God, May 30," Biden said, according to the transcript.
Two unnamed people then answered the year.
"It was May of 2015," said one of them.
Biden agreed: "It was 2015."
In the report, Hur also said Biden "did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died." In a later news briefing, Biden responded, asking, "How the hell dare he raise that?" The president insisted his "memory is fine."
Hur is set to testify about his report before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. His tenure at the Department of Justice ended on Monday, allowing him to speak freely without any federal employee restraints.
Some Democrat-leading commentators believe Hur's testimony will be partisan.
Harry Litman, the senior legal affairs columnist at the Los Angeles Times, wrote about Hur's committee appearance on X, formerly Twitter: "It's hard not to anticipate some real ugliness with Robert Hur's testimony tomorrow. He already showed his partisan colors in the inappropriate parts of his report. And he and the R's obviously contemplate he can vilify Biden now that he's testifying as a 'private citizen.'"
Newsweek contacted the White House press office and Hur for comment by email.
Prior to being made special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland, Hur was appointed U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland by President Donald Trump.
In his 388-page report, Hur said Biden stored notecards containing classified material "in unlocked drawers at home," viewing them "as highly private and valued possessions with which he was unwilling to part."
Hur added: "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."
In June, Trump, who has all but secured the 2024 Republican presidential nomination with a string of victories on Super Tuesday, was charged with a number of offenses over claims he mishandled classified documents and obstructed efforts to return them to the relevant authorities.
Trump pleaded not guilty to 40 felony charges in the case. He was charged along with Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira and Walt Nauta, Trump's former personal aide, both of whom also pleaded not guilty. Trump has insisted the charges against him are politically motivated and denies any wrongdoing.
About the writer
Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. ... Read more