Biden unlikely to be charged in classified doc probe

[emailking]

Special counsel report concludes Biden willfully retained classified information but will not face charges

Special counsel Robert Hur released a searing report Thursday that concluded President Joe Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified military and national security information but will not face charges after a year-long investigation into his handling of classified documents.

"We concluded that no criminal charges are warranted in this matter,” Hur concluded. “We would reach the same conclusion even if Department of Justice policy did not foreclose criminal charges against a sitting president.”

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/biden-classified-documents-report-02-08-24/index.html


400 page document.

[wbrocks67]

The thing is, I imagine every major president and elected official has kept classified information. Biden did, Pence did, Trump did, I bet Obama did, etc. The difference is that Biden and Pence let officials do their investigation. Trump thwarted them at every turn - and it's clear his handling of classified information was insanely more egregious and not even in comparison to Biden's.

[emailking]

Agreed Trump is way worse but willful retention & disclosure is pretty bad. I was under the assumption it was all accidental. Maybe we'll learn more as they go through the details of the report.

[Florida Man for Crime]

The thing is, I imagine every major president and elected official has kept classified information. Biden did, Pence did, Trump did, I bet Obama did

Stop besmirching Obama's reputation and tarnishing his character when there is absolutely 0 evidence that he ever did any such thing.

[emailking]

Biden chose not to have any of the report redacted for executive privilege.

Hur says in the report that he found Biden to be a well intentioned man with memory problems, who when the problem was brought to his attention did everything he could to correct it.

[JMT]

This sounds… really bad. The GOP is going to have a field day with this:

https://twitter.com/reesejgorman/status/1755688625172344887?s=46&t=-r8JGlJno...

[Tekken_Guy]

This sounds… really bad. The GOP is going to have a field day with this:

https://twitter.com/reesejgorman/status/1755688625172344887?s=46&t=-r8JGlJno...

I don’t think anyone will care given how old Trump is.

[Open Source Intelligence]

The thing is, I imagine every major president and elected official has kept classified information. Biden did, Pence did, Trump did, I bet Obama did, etc.

Great, charge all of them with crimes. It's what they would do to me and anyone else deemed "unimportant".

There is how justice works for the paeans, and then there's how justice works for everyone in Washington, and it is completely 100% different. If I did what Biden, Trump, Pence, Obama, etc. did and cited "bad memory", I'd at best be reprimanded in a work review and at worst told to go get a new job. Why politicians are allowed to view classified documents outside of a SCIF is a damned good question.

You know, I bet Bob Menendez, former Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had personal possession of classified documents that he shouldn't have had. What do you think happened with those? Did he let an Egyptian gentleman view them at his house? How do you know he didn't?

[henster]

The report is devastating, how do you spin your own Justice Department essentially calling you mentally unfit? Biden is doing the entire party a disservice by continuing to run.

[President Johnson]

This sounds… really bad. The GOP is going to have a field day with this:

https://twitter.com/reesejgorman/status/1755688625172344887?s=46&t=-r8JGlJno...

That honestly needs clarification and verification. The reason this makes me skpetical is that Biden continues to deliver results and besides from the usual gaffes (which he always had) still seems overall sharp in public, even aside from the teleprompter. If it was this bad, he couldn't function so effectively as president. Of course there's senior staff, but you can't put them in charge for everything. He's the president.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Biden should drop out at the DNC and democrats should replace him with Beshear

[Open Source Intelligence]

This sounds… really bad. The GOP is going to have a field day with this:

https://twitter.com/reesejgorman/status/1755688625172344887?s=46&t=-r8JGlJno...

That honestly needs clarification and verification. The reason this makes me skpetical is that Biden continues to deliver results and besides from the usual gaffes (which he always had) still seems overall sharp in public, even aside from the teleprompter. If it was this bad, he couldn't function so effectively as president. Of course there's senior staff, but you can't put them in charge for everything. He's the president.

Are you kidding? Woodrow Wilson was almost a corpse the last year of his presidency and his Cabinet ran the country.

Democrats seem to have a very 1944ish strategy of get Biden elected and then he'll be replaced. I don't think they believe they can do or have the stomach to do the other half of the 1944 strategy (replace the VP).

[President Johnson]

This sounds… really bad. The GOP is going to have a field day with this:

https://twitter.com/reesejgorman/status/1755688625172344887?s=46&t=-r8JGlJno...

That honestly needs clarification and verification. The reason this makes me skpetical is that Biden continues to deliver results and besides from the usual gaffes (which he always had) still seems overall sharp in public, even aside from the teleprompter. If it was this bad, he couldn't function so effectively as president. Of course there's senior staff, but you can't put them in charge for everything. He's the president.

Are you kidding? Woodrow Wilson was almost a corpse the last year of his presidency and his Cabinet ran the country.

Over 100 years ago, when the media and entire public spotlight was extremely different. Not to mention the government functioned differently. It's not really a good comparison. That's why I wrote the information should be clarified. I wouldn't just dismiss the report, but not take it at face value either.

[Open Source Intelligence]

This sounds… really bad. The GOP is going to have a field day with this:

https://twitter.com/reesejgorman/status/1755688625172344887?s=46&t=-r8JGlJno...

That honestly needs clarification and verification. The reason this makes me skpetical is that Biden continues to deliver results and besides from the usual gaffes (which he always had) still seems overall sharp in public, even aside from the teleprompter. If it was this bad, he couldn't function so effectively as president. Of course there's senior staff, but you can't put them in charge for everything. He's the president.

Are you kidding? Woodrow Wilson was almost a corpse the last year of his presidency and his Cabinet ran the country.

Over 100 years ago, when the media and entire public spotlight was extremely different. Not to mention the government functioned differently. It's not really a good comparison. That's why I wrote the information should be clarified. I wouldn't just dismiss the report, but not take it at face value either.

The executive branch has greatly increased in size from over 100 years ago too. That means a lot of people high up in the bureaucracy operate with effectively little presidential oversight. (Could be why the Defense Department didn't see any reason to inform the presidential administration on Secretary Austin going AWOL a month ago.) And that's true regardless of who is President or how effective they are. If the President spent 16 hours every week on how all the Cabinet departments were running, he would only be giving each 1 hour per week. And I don't believe anyone thinks that's happening.

[jojoju1998]

Biden should drop out at the DNC and democrats should replace him with Beshear

Beshear would never get the support of the Democratic Base.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The report is devastating, how do you spin your own Justice Department essentially calling you mentally unfit? Biden is doing the entire party a disservice by continuing to run.

It's not from his own Justice Department, but a special counsel, and it's well known that Hur is a partisan Republican, not exactly a "hack" in the vein of those weirdos on Trump's team, but it's hardly shocking that he would push a spin like this. Really this is kind of a justification from him for not recommending any charges.

[henster]

The report is devastating, how do you spin your own Justice Department essentially calling you mentally unfit? Biden is doing the entire party a disservice by continuing to run.

It's not from his own Justice Department, but a special counsel, and it's well known that Hur is a partisan Republican, not exactly a "hack" in the vein of those weirdos on Trump's team, but it's hardly shocking that he would push a spin like this. Really this is kind of a justification from him for not recommending any charges.

A special counsel appointed by his own AG.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Republican hack is still a Republican hack.  All that and more at 11:00.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

The report is devastating, how do you spin your own Justice Department essentially calling you mentally unfit? Biden is doing the entire party a disservice by continuing to run.

They didn’t.  This was a report by a well-known right-wing hack with the credibility of a pile of toenail clippings.

[Vosem]

This sounds… really bad. The GOP is going to have a field day with this:

https://twitter.com/reesejgorman/status/1755688625172344887?s=46&t=-r8JGlJno...

I don’t think anyone will care given how old Trump is.

Which -- and I say this as no particular fan of Joe Biden -- actually represents a quite weird double standard. While the clips I've seen of both men have clearly been selected, Trump seems to have around as many obviously non-lucid moments as Biden. (Given the median age of the electorate in the late 50s, of course, this is not necessarily even a disadvantage: I remember in 2019 I kept noticing that Biden's polling numbers tended to go up whenever the media covered his gaffes, and all of AAD kept refusing to believe me. I suspect geriatric identity politics is an underrated influence in many democracies.)

Anyway, Hur is indeed a partisan Republican and you can let that color your report, but it's obviously damning. If it doesn't cause voters to change their minds -- and indeed I suspect it won't -- then that is substantially an indictment of the voters.

[emailking]

Anyway, Hur is indeed a partisan Republican and you can let that color your report, but it's obviously damning. If it doesn't cause voters to change their minds -- and indeed I suspect it won't -- then that is substantially an indictment of the voters.

Change their mind in the primary or change their mind in the general vs Trump?

[emailking]

Agreed Trump is way worse but willful retention & disclosure is pretty bad. I was under the assumption it was all accidental. Maybe we'll learn more as they go through the details of the report.

Biden is pushing back on this, saying the media has mischaracterized what the SC found. There are certainly passages in the report that say he didn't willfully retain this or there isn't evidence he willfully retained that. I don't know what the truth of it is.

[emailking]

Biden says he takes responsibility for not having seen what his staff was doing, moving things in and out of his home.

He's pushing back hard on the memory issue.

He says he did not share classified information with his ghost writer.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

The report is devastating, how do you spin your own Justice Department essentially calling you mentally unfit? Biden is doing the entire party a disservice by continuing to run.

It's not from his own Justice Department, but a special counsel, and it's well known that Hur is a partisan Republican, not exactly a "hack" in the vein of those weirdos on Trump's team, but it's hardly shocking that he would push a spin like this. Really this is kind of a justification from him for not recommending any charges.

Watching Ds fall for this hook, line, and sinker makes me so ashamed to be a member of this party. It's full of useful idiots. People are falling for the most obvious hit maneuver of the last three years.

[emailking]

He just said he convinced the President of Mexico to allow humanitarian assistance into Gaza. oops.