Robert Hur Stumbles Under Jim Jordan, James Comer Questioning

Former Special Counsel Robert Hur stumbled to answer House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan when he was questioned about what motivated President Joe Biden to remove classified documents from the White House.

During Tuesday's hearing, Jordan asked Hur why Biden chose to take documents with him when he left the vice presidency, to which Hur responded that the "why" wasn't addressed by the report.

"I think you told us, Mr. Hur," Jordan said. "Page 231, you said this: 'President Biden had strong motivations'—that's a keyword. We're getting a motive now. 'President Biden had strong motivations to ignore the proper procedures for safeguarding the classified information in his notebook.' Why did he have strong motivations? 'Because he decided months before leaving office to write a book.'"

Jordan then proceeded to ask Hur exactly how much Biden was being offered for that book, to which the special counsel first said, "Off the top of my head, I'm not sure if that information appears in the report." Jordan then corrected him, saying there was actually a dollar amount in his report.

When asked if he remembered what that figure was, Hur said, "It may be $8 million."

Later on, Representative James Comer said Dana Remus was former White House counsel for President Joe Biden. Hur corrected Comer, saying she was White House counsel for former President Barack Obama, prompting an apology from Comer.

Remus did serve as Biden's White House counsel. She also served during the Obama administration, but as a deputy assistant to the president and deputy counsel for ethics. She also served as general counsel of the personal office of the Obamas.

Hur appeared before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday to testify about his investigation into Biden's mishandling of confidential documents. The special counsel was a rare witness that frustrated both Republicans who pushed back on Hur's decision not to bring criminal charges against the president and Democrats who expressed their upset over his unflattering commentary about Biden's memory.

Democratic strategists were quick to seize on Hur's responses to Jordan and Comer, casting doubt over the special counsel. Adam Parkhomenko said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, "Special Counsel Hur can't remember what is in his report on Joe Biden," while Sawyer Hackett asked, "Robert Hur and James Comer can't even remember who served as General Counsel to Obama vs Biden—they both get it wrong here! And we're talking about Biden's memory?"

During his testimony, Hur defended his report to lawmakers, insisting that "partisan politics had no place whatsoever in my work, it had no place in the investigative steps that I took, it has no place in the decision that I made and it has no place in a single word of my report."

Update 03/12/24 11:45 a.m. This story was updated with additional information.