Biden ‘willfully’ disclosed classified materials, but no criminal charges warranted: Special Counsel

President Joe Biden “willfully” retained and disclosed highly classified materials when he was a private citizen, including documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan and other sensitive national security matters, according to a Justice Department report that nonetheless says no criminal charges are warranted for him or anyone else.

The report from Special Counsel Robert Hur, released on Feb. 8, represents a harshly critical assessment of Mr. Biden’s handling of sensitive government materials, but also details the reasons why he should not be charged with the crime.

The findings will likely blunt his ability to forcefully condemn Donald Trump, Mr. Biden’s likely opponent in November’s presidential election, over a criminal indictment charging the former president with illegally hoarding classified records at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

“Our investigation uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen,” Mr. Hur wrote.

It came after a yearlong investigation into the improper retention of classified documents by Mr. Biden, from his time as a senator and as vice president, that were found at his Delaware home, as well as at a private office that he used in between his service in the Obama administration and becoming president.

The investigation into Mr. Biden is separate from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s inquiry into the handling of classified documents by Mr. Trump after Mr. Trump left the White House. Mr. Smith’s team has charged Mr. Trump with illegally retaining top secret records at Mar-a-Lago home and then obstructing government efforts to get them back. Mr. Trump has said he did nothing wrong.

After Mr. Biden’s lawyers uncovered classified documents at his former office, Mr. Biden’s representatives promptly contacted the National Archives to arrange their return to the government. The National Archives notified the FBI, which opened an investigation. Mr. Biden made his homes available to agents to conduct thorough searches, and that is how the most sensitive documents came to the attention of the Justice Department.

Mr. Biden could not have been prosecuted as a sitting president, but Mr. Hur’s report states that he would not recommend charges against Mr. Biden regardless.

“We would reach the same conclusion even if Department of Justice policy did not foreclose criminal charges against a sitting president,” the report said.

Part of the report centers on Mr. Biden’s handling of classified documents about Afghanistan — specifically, the Obama administration’s decision to send additional troops there — that he retained after he left office as vice president in his Delaware home. Mr. Biden preserved materials documenting his opposition to the troop surge, including a 2009 classified handwritten memo to then-President Barack Obama.

“These materials were proof of the stand Mr. Biden took in what he regarded as among the most important decisions of his vice presidency,” the report said.

The documents have classification markings up to the Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information Level and were found in a box in Mr. Biden’s Delaware garage “that contained other materials of great significance to him and that he appears to have personally used and accessed.” Photographs included in the report showed some of the classified Afghanistan documents stored in a worn cardboard box stored in his garage, apparently in a loose collection with other household items, including a ladder and a wicker basket.

Classified documents from the Obama administration were also found in Mr. Biden’s basement den, according to the report. Classified documents from his time in the Senate in the 1970s and 1980s were also found in his garage.

Despite signs that Mr. Biden knowingly retained and disclosed classified materials, Mr. Hur’s report said criminal charges were not merited for multiple reasons. Those include the fact that as vice president, and during his subsequent presidency when the Afghanistan records were found, “he had the authority to keep classified documents at his home.” As part of the probe, investigators reviewed a recording of a February 2017 conversation between Mr. Biden and his ghostwriter in which, referring to the 2009 memo to Obama, Mr. Biden said that he had “just found all the classified stuff downstairs.” Mr. Biden was renting a home in Virginia at the time and consolidated his belongings in Delaware when he moved out in 2019. Prosecutors believe that Mr. Biden’s comment was a reference to the same classified records that FBI agents later found in his Delaware home.

Though the best case for charges could involve his possession of the Afghanistan documents as a private citizen, prosecutors said, it was possible that Mr. Biden could have found those records at his Virginia home in 2017 and then forgotten about them soon after.

“This could convince some reasonable jurors that he did not retain them willfully,” the report.

The report said there was some evidence to suggest that Mr. Biden knew he could not keep classified handwritten notes at home after leaving office, citing his deep familiarity “with the measures taken to safeguard classified information and the need for those measures to prevent harm to national security.” Yet his kept notebooks containing classified information in unlocked drawers at home.

“He had strong motivations to do so and to ignore the rules for properly handing the classified information in his notebooks,” the report said. “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.” While the report removes legal jeopardy for the president, it is nonetheless is an embarrassment for Mr. Biden, who placed competency and experience at the core of his rationale to voters to send him to the Oval Office.

“Mr. Biden was known to remove and keep classified material from his briefing books for future use, and his staff struggled — and sometimes failed — to retrieve those materials,” the report states. “And there was no procedure at all for tracking some of the classified material Mr. Biden received outside of his briefing books” In declining to prosecute Mr. Biden, Mr. Hur’s office also cited what it said was Mr. Biden’s “limited memory” both during his 2017 recorded conversations with the ghostwriter and in an interview with investigators last year.

“Given Mr. Biden’s limited precision and recall during his interviews with his ghostwriter and with our office, jurors may hesitate to place too much evidentiary weight on a single eight-word utterance to his ghostwriter about finding classified documents in Virginia, in the absence of other, more direct evidence.” “We have also considered that, 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,” investigators wrote.

There is recent Justice Department precedence for criminal charges against individuals accused of sharing classified information with biographers or ghostwriters; Gen. David Petraeus pleaded guilty to doing exactly that in 2015 and was sentenced to probation.

Yet in this instance, prosecutors say, Mr. Biden could have plausibly believed that the notebooks were his personal property and belonged to him, even if they contained classified information.

In an interview with prosecutors, the report said, Mr. Biden was emphatic with investigators that the notebooks were “my property” and that “every president before me has done the exact same thing.” White House lawyers and Mr. Biden’s personal attorney were given the opportunity to review and comment on the report. Mr. Biden chose not to assert executive privilege over any portion of the report, White House counsel’s office spokesman Ian Sams said.

Attorney General Merrick Garland in January 2023 named Mr. Hur, a former U.S. attorney for Maryland, to handle the politically sensitive Justice Department inquiry in an attempt to avoid conflicts of interest. It is one of three recent Justice Department investigations into the handling of classified documents by politically prominent figures.

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Checks & Imbalances: Mar-A-Lago Sought 380 Foreign Workers, Jim Jordan’s Got $100,000

Today we look at Mar-a-Lago’s staffing whilst Donald Trump had access to America’s secrets.


Mar-A-Lago Sought 380 Foreign Workers During Time Trump Had Access To Classified Documents

Mar-a-Lago looked to employ 380 short-term foreign workers from 2017 to 2022, when Trump had access to classified documents, initially as president and ultimately as a former official living at the club.

Trump pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to 37 charges stemming from his retention of government documents, including 102 the FBI allegedly found when they raided Mar-a-Lago in August 2022. According to the indictment, Trump stored classified documents in the ballroom, a bathroom, his bedroom, a storage room and his office. It’s unclear who exactly could get inside those areas, but it would stand to reason that some Mar-a-Lago staff could access them.

Mar-a-Lago relies on foreign nationals to work as servers, cooks and housekeepers. In 2016, the club sought 65 foreign workers. The figure has increased every year since, with the exception of 2020, when the club shut down in the early days of the pandemic and furloughed more than 150 employees. Last winter, Mar-a-Lago sought out 91 foreign workers, according to records filed with the Department of Labor.

The requirements listed on the job orders do not seem particularly strict. For example, the qualifications to be a housekeeper during the 2021 to 2022 season included three months of verifiable housekeeping experience and a drug and background check. The position also required the ability to communicate in English, maintain flexible hours and move 25 pounds. It paid $11.70 an hour.

U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services’ guidelines allow U.S. employers to hire short-term, non-permanent foreign workers if “there are not enough U.S. workers who are able, willing, qualified and available to do the temporary work.” Foreign nationals from 87 countries are eligible to apply for these jobs via the federal government’s H-2B visa program. Businesses must petition the Department of Labor for permission to hire these workers, listing the number of vacancies they are looking to fill.

If Mar-a-Lago’s reliance on foreign workers seems at odds with Trump’s immigration policy, it’s not. While his White House tried to prevent employers from relying on foreign workers, it targeted permanent employees—not the temporary ones Mar-a-Lago and other Trump properties hire.

Representatives of the Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment.


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Loose Change

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) earned more than $100,000 in 2022 for his memoir, “Do What You Said You Would Do,” according to a disclosure he filed Wednesday with the House clerk’s office. The payment was first reported by Cleveland.com.

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) offers signed copies of Jordan’s book in exchange for a donation of $35 or more. The NRCC reported paying $30,000 in 2022 to Jordan’s publisher, Post Hill Press, a conservative outlet.

“Jordan for Congress did not buy copies of ‘Do What You Said You Would Do,’ but certainly understands why other entities might want to use it as a fundraising tool,” said Kevin Eichinger, a spokesperson for the campaign.

Representatives of the NRCC did not respond to inquiries.

*****

The Michigan Republican Party failed to report $2 million in expenditures and $160,000 in receipts in its original March 2023 report, according to a letter the Federal Election Committee (FEC) sent the state party earlier in June. The Michigan GOP has until July 6 to explain its original oversight. A spokesperson for the committee did not respond to a request for comment.

In response to previous inquiries from the FEC about discrepancies between other original and amended filings, the committee said “any change in activity is a result of an audit conducted by the previous compliance staff” and that the committee is using a new compliance firm.


Did TikTok’s CEO Commit Perjury?

Alexandra Levine, a senior writer at Forbes, joins “Forbes Newsroom” to give updates on the rift between the U.S. government and TikTok.


Continuing Irresolutions

Updates on Checks & Imbalances’ previous reporting

Former Vice President Mike Pence announced Thursday that his second book will be published in November.

Pence’s political action committee bought $91,000 worth of his literary debut last year. It peaked at No. 2 on the New York Times’ best-seller list and remained ranked for six weeks.

*****

Kari Lake’s debut single, “81 Million Votes, My Ass,” held the top spot on the iTunes Music chart for two days this week. That list measures paid downloads, as opposed to streams, the more popular method to listen to music.


Tracking Trump

Forbes continues to update “Tracking Trump: All The Criminal Cases, Lawsuits And Investigations Involving The Former President.”

*****

“Hours after becoming the first former U.S. president to be charged with a federal crime Tuesday, Donald Trump laid out his defense against the 37-count indictment accusing him of mishandling sensitive government information and obstructing the investigation into his conduct—but his speech included legally fraught arguments and misleading comparisons of his political adversaries’ own legal woes,” reports Sara Dorn.

*****

Trump’s campaign said it raised $6.6 million after news broke of his federal indictment. At least one fundraiser that contributed to that total was held at his Bedminster, N.J. golf course this week, meaning he may have raised some funds for his private business.


Across Forbes


Quiz

Which of the following is not a false or misleading remark Donald Trump made after his latest indictment?

A. President Joe Biden had him arrested on “fake and fabricated charges”

B. The Bill Clinton “sock drawer” case exonerates Trump

C. The only person with the power to arrest him in the case is the Palm Beach County sheriff

D. The Espionage Act doesn’t apply

Check if you got it right here.



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Unsealed Trump indictment paints a very disturbing picture (Jonathan Turley calls it ‘extremely damning’)

Earlier today, to celebrate Donald Trump being indicted for a second time — this time for allegedly mishandling classified documents — Hillary Clinton took the opportunity to gloat about how she had escaped facing any real consequences for also mishandling classified documents.

Hillary’s tweet was annoying and obnoxious and, quite frankly, just a bad idea. But that should not and cannot distract from the mess of trouble that Donald Trump currently finds himself in. Details of the indictment have just been released, and let’s just say Mr. Trump has got some major ‘splainin’ to do.

We’re sure it’s just a coincidence that two members of Trump’s legal team resigned this morning.

They probably really want to be on the hook to defend Trump right now but something else just came up.

Yiiiiiikes.

It really is. Except this isn’t funny at all.

This looks pretty bad for Trump, you guys. Not gonna lie.

And if it’s as bad as it looks, Trump absolutely deserves to face the music.

The allegations suggest not only gross impropriety but also jeopardization of our national security.

They might actually have nailed Trump this time.

If any of these allegations are true, there’s really no defending Donald Trump anymore. There’s simply no moral leg to stand on at that point to support him.

That’s just the reality of the situation, inconvenient as it may be for Trump and his supporters.

What’s interesting, though, is that the liberals and journalists that are reveling in these revelations still need Trump to be the 2024 GOP nominee. If this indictment ultimately takes him down, they’ll likely have Ron DeSantis to contend with, and he’s poised to absolutely wipe the floor with Biden. They should’ve learned by now to be careful what they wish for.

Editor’s note: This post has been updated with an additional tweet.

***

Related:

Rep. Jim Jordan shares new information about Trump raid, FBI and indictment

***

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Crime Guy’s Lawyers Go To Justice Department To Say Hey, Don’t Charge Crime Guy With Crimes

A couple weeks ago, we all laughed and laughed at the dumbstupid letter Donald Trump’s lawyers sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland, respectfully begging for a meeting so they could explain that Special Counsel Jack Smith was a witch hunter doing witch hunts, and that Hunter Biden exists. It was widely interpreted as a sign that indictments were very soon coming in Smith’s BOXES HOAX, which is what Trump calls the investigation into why he stole all those classified state secrets and placed them inside his bottom so the FBI wouldn’t find them when they came calling.

It sounds like that meeting happened this morning, though apparently not with anybody as important as Garland. This was their meeting to explain that the Justice Department has it all wrong and Donald Trump is the purest of good men with only the best intentions, blah blah blah, innocent until suck my balls, or however it goes. Also CNN says they brought with them allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, so that’s amusing.

The Washington Post reports it was John Rowley and James Trusty, the two lawyers on that letter, plus Lindsey Halligan, another one of the idiots.


Trump himself is doing fine:

Here is the text of that “truth” from Trump’s Truth Social, in case a drag queen wants to read it at today’s Story Hour:

HOW CAN DOJ POSSIBLY CHARGE ME, WHO DID NOTHING WRONG, WHEN NO OTHER PRESIDENT’S WERE CHARGED, WHEN JOE BIDEN WON’T BE CHARGED FOR ANYTHING, INCLUDING THE FACT THAT HE HAS 1,850 BOXES, MUCH OF IT CLASSIFIED, AND SOME DATING BACK TO HIS SENATE DAY WHEN EVEN DEMOCRAT SENATORS ARE SHOCKED. ALSO, PRESIDENT CLINTON HAD DOCUMENTS, AND WON IN COURT. CROOKED HILLARY DELETED 33,000 EMAILS, MANY CLASSIFIED, AND WASN’T EVEN CLOSE TO BEING CHARGED! ONLY TRUMP – THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!

INCLUDING THE FACT THAT HE HAS 1,850 BOXES, MUCH OF IT CLASSIFIED, AND SOME DATING BACK TO HIS SENATE DAY WHEN EVEN DEMOCRAT SENATORS ARE SHOCKED.

That’s our favorite part.

WHEN EVEN DEMOCRAT SENATORS ARE SHOCKED.

Trump was glad to hear the other day that Mike Pence would not be charged for the classified documents they found in his house, but demanded to know when he would be “fully exonerated” just like Pence was.

And then last night, it appears he was just hallucinating:

Reports are the Marxist Special Prosecutor, DOJ, & FBI, want to Indict me on the BOXES HOAX, despite all of the wrongdoing that they have done for SEVEN YEARS, including SPYING ON MY CAMPAIGN. Biden Crimes go unpunished, including that he had Boxes in Chinatown, in his garage by the “Corvette,” & 1,850 Boxes in Delaware that he won’t allow anyone to see. That is real OBSTRUCTION! They seek retribution for Republicans looking into Biden’s CRIMES! I HAVE DONE NOTHING WRONG. ELECTION INTERFERENCE!

Okeydoke.

So he’s freaking the fuck out.

Meanwhile, this week the grand jury in the case is back and hearing more evidence, reports NBC News. And the New York Times has a story about how former Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran apparently made a long and detailed recording last year of his thoughts, feelings, recollections, and reflections on an entire month of the case. Prosecutors have this tape now, and it sounds pretty juicy:

In complete sentences and a narrative tone that sounded as if it had been ripped from a novel, Mr. Corcoran recounted in detail a nearly monthlong period of the documents investigation, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Mr. Corcoran’s narration of his recollections covered his initial meeting with Mr. Trump in May last year to discuss a subpoena from the Justice Department seeking the return of all classified materials in the former president’s possession, the people said.

It also encompassed a search that Mr. Corcoran undertook last June in response to the subpoena for any relevant records being kept at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s private club and residence in Florida. He carried out the search in preparation for a visit by prosecutors, who were on their way to enforce the subpoena and collect any sensitive material found remaining there.

Uh yeah, we guess that sounds like it might be helpful evidence. Remember, in March, both DC District Court Judge Beryl Howell and an appeals court panel ruled that attorney-client privilege didn’t apply with Corcoran because of the crime-fraud exception, because of a reasonable belief Trump had lied to him about the location of certain classified documents. So that’s why Jack Smith has that. Boxes hoax, election interference, etc., and so forth.

The Times says Trump aides are scared of this one. “The level of detail in the recording is said to have angered and unnerved close aides to Mr. Trump, who are worried it contains direct quotes from sensitive conversations.”

Guess they’ll just have to keep worrying.

Appeals Court Agrees That Trump Too Crimey-Fraudy To Assert Privilege Over Lawyer’s Testimony

In the meantime, some very smart legal experts have put together a 186-page Model Prosecution Memo over at Just Security, taking all the publicly available evidence in BOXES HOAX and analyzing which crimes Trump could and should be indicted for. And to be clear, they think he’s going to be:

This model prosecution memorandum assesses potential charges federal prosecutors may bring against former President Donald Trump. It focuses on those emanating from his handling of classified documents and other government records since leaving office on January 20, 2021. It includes crimes related to the removal and retention of national security information and obstruction of the investigation into his handling of these documents. The authors have decades of experience as federal prosecutors and defense lawyers, as well as other legal expertise. Based upon this experience and the analysis that follows, we conclude that Trump should–and likely will–be charged.

Lock him up where we never have to listen to his face again.

[New York Times / Just Security]

Follow Evan Hurst on Twitter right here.

Just got to BlueSky!

I have profiles those other places but I think I forgot how to log on.

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LOL! Even more classified documents found at Biden’s Wilmington home

This entire Biden classified documents scandal is hilarious. In typical fashion, the Left went full ‘Chicken Little, treasonous threat to the Republic’ clown show when the Trump Mar-a-Lago classified document story broke.

Now, they’re stuck trying to figure out how to excuse Biden for apparently having held onto classified documents for decades while still maintaining their ‘serious situation’ game face in the latest effort to get Trump.

The Doofus-In-Chief is not helping their efforts because they keep finding more and more classified documents in his possession. LOL.

It’s not clear how many classified documents are in the latest find, but the ‘DOJ seized an additional six items consisting of classified documents’, according to the Fox News article.

Some of these were from Biden’s time in the Senate.

Remember, team Trump has always made the argument that Trump had presidential powers to declassify documents. That legal battle has not taken place, but there is an argument to be made.

No such claim could be made of Senator Biden or Vice President Biden. As far as President Biden, his brain is probably the safest place on earth to store classified information. Even he won’t be able to share it within an hour or two, but we digress.

What is clear is that he was not supposed to be in possession of these documents. That is, it’s illegal. Maybe they’ll call them ‘undocumented documents’?

How does Joe Biden get away with stuff like this?

It’s simple really. He’ll say something like ‘My dad always used to say, Joey, if you’re gonna look at classified documents take ’em out of the SCIF and hide ’em in your garage. I’m not joking.’ Then the leftist media will dismiss it as just another ‘Crazy Uncle Joe’ moment. He’s been playing this game for years.

Cue up the media spin praising Biden for going above and beyond to work with the DOJ, unlike the Evil Orange One, to … divulge classified documents he has illegally possessed for decades.

In order to provide some clarity, this situation is probably not all that rare. It has been claimed that there is an over classification problem – that, when in doubt, documents are labeled as classified when they’re really not. There are likely hordes of such information floating around the country in file folders, on computers, and in basements where it’s technically not supposed to be.

Democrats created this mess for themselves because they had to convince the public a few months ago that Trump having classified documents in a secure location at Mar-a-Lago with constant Secret Service protection was the worst thing to happen since Watergate. They look pretty dumb now, and we love it.

We mentioned this was an utter clown show, right? Just wanted to be sure. Ha!

LOL! Remember the ‘bombshell’ photos from the DOJ of the Trump classified documents spread across the floor?

It’s almost like the DOJ nor the press has any interest in pursuing a similar narrative with a Democrat president.

Seriously, classified documents spread out on Biden’s garage floor next to an oil stain and a dirty box labeled ‘Jill’s doctor stuff’ would have made a great photo.

Bwahaha! Biden probably uses classified documents to line the cages of his dogs when they get kicked out of the White House.

‘Biden illegally possessed classified documents the good way.’ We told you.

There seems to be a different set of rules here.

Hey, that could be fun. LOL.

LOLOLOL!

We remember.

They’ll find a new excuse. It usually takes them a few hours to sync their reporting.

We love the messes they create for themselves.

If you’ve been watching Joe Biden operate at any point during his 50-year stint on the government dole, you’re not surprised in the least.

This looks bad enough for Biden that they’re likely going to have to cancel ‘the beginning of the end’ for Trump again.

It could be a lot of classified documents if the six ‘items’ are three filing cabinets, a box from a Rascal Mobility Scooter, a ’69 Camaro, and a stolen Chevy Suburban from the Secret Service.

LOL! Nice.

Hey, if Joe Biden goes missing, Nicolas Cage can just follow the trail of classified documents he leaves everywhere.

***

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